Name: Planked White Fish
Ingredients: 1 whole white fish, cleaned; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Lemon juice; Butter; Radishes, for garnish; Parsley, for garnish; Potatoes, for potato roses

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Planked White Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Wipe the cleaned fish dry and place it skin side down on an oak plank.
Season the fish with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Brush the fish with lemon juice and melted butter.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 25 minutes, or according to the size of the fish.
Serve the fish on the plank, garnished with radishes, parsley, and a border of potato roses.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Radish + parsleytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together120 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, lemon, butter, parsley, potato, rose):

Carrotfits better
Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, lemon, butter, parsley, potato, rose. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.