Name: Escalloped Fish
Ingredients: 3 pounds fish; 1 pint milk; ½ onion; 1 sprig thyme or 1 teaspoon powdered thyme; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; 1 egg yolk

Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Escalloped Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the milk in a double boiler.
Place the onion and thyme in a piece of cheesecloth and add to the milk.
Let it boil for 5 minutes.
Stir the flour smooth with a little cold water.
Remove the cheesecloth and add the flour to the milk.
Cook for 5 more minutes.
Remove from heat and add butter, salt, pepper, and egg yolk.
Flake the fish into small pieces.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, thyme, flour, butter, pepper, egg):

Potatofits better
Leekfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, thyme, flour, butter, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.