Name: Fish
Ingredients: fish (salmon, trout, or other small fish); coarse sea salt; black pepper; flour; twine

Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Choose fish with red gills, full eyes, and a firm body.
Wash the fish well and soak in salt water to cover for a short time.
Wipe the fish dry, dredge lightly with flour, and season with salt and pepper.
For small fish, fry or broil them. For large fish, tie in a cloth with twine and place in cold water.
Bring the water to a boil to cook the large fish.
To bake, prepare the fish as for boiling and place on a wire rack over a dripping pan in the oven.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fish + flourtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,532 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).