Anchovy is a fish with 70 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is isoamylol. It pairs most strongly with capsicum, sharing 57 flavor compounds. Anchovy appears in 5,635 recipes, most commonly in world cuisine.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Anchovy's inventory contains 21. Most of the other 49 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 9 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Anchovy's 70 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
9 of 70 are distinctive to anchovy — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in anchovy — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Anchovy and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Anchovy side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
<h4>Background</h4>This study aimed to develop an anchovy sauce with enhanced savory odor and reduced off-flavors and biogenic amine (BA) content by applying reaction flavor techno... Read abstract →
Research on spicy anchovies lacks dedicated sensory frameworks, reliable aroma identification, and systematic processing-flavor insights. In this study, 21 spicy anchovy samples wi... Read abstract →
Lemon is widely valued for its bioactive components and unique flavor, which are influenced by diverse volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This study implemented flavoromics, a comp... Read abstract →
The incorporation of citrus-based flavoring agents into vegetable oils has gained increasing attention because of their potential to enhance both the sensory and functional qualiti... Read abstract →
<h4>Background</h4>Understanding how aroma compounds enhance monosodium glutamate (MSG) umami perception remains a critical challenge in flavor science.<h4>Methods</h4>The umami-en... Read abstract →
