Name: Baked Black Bass
Ingredients: 8 medium onions, finely chopped; 4 cups bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons butter (or pork if using tomatoes); Plenty of pepper; Coarse sea salt; Anchovy sauce (or tomatoes as a substitute); Red pepper for sprinkling

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Black Bass

Ingredients

8 medium onions, finely chopped
4 cups bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter (or pork if using tomatoes)
Plenty of pepper
Coarse sea salt
Anchovy sauce (or tomatoes as a substitute)
Red pepper for sprinkling

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the chopped onions, bread crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, and anchovy sauce until the mixture is red.
Stuff the fish with the mixture and pour the remaining mixture over it.
Sprinkle a little red pepper on top before baking.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Onion + anchovytop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together1,263 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, pepper, anchovy):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, pepper, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).