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Codfish and Potato Moulded and Browned

A baked codfish and potato dish moulded in a tin, browned with egg yolk and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Codfish and Potato Moulded and Browned

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.

Mix

  1. Melt the butter in the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the codfish, pepper, and cream, and mix thoroughly.

Mold and bake

  1. Butter a quart-sized tin mold and fill it evenly, leaving no spaces.

  2. Let it stand in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  3. Turn it out onto a sheet-iron frying plate.

Coat, fry and serve

  1. Cover with the egg yolk and bread crumbs, removing any excess.

  2. Fry in hot lard deep enough to cover until golden brown.

  3. Carefully slide onto a platter.

  4. Garnish with curled parsley.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the mixture and hold the shape when molded.
Codfish
Provides the main flavor and firm, flaky texture within the potato base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the potatoes and carrying flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness, keeping the mixture soft and cohesive.
Egg yolk
Helps the coating adhere and promotes browning on the surface.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust during frying.

The step that matters

Fill the mold evenly, leaving no spaces. Air pockets become weak points, so the mixture can crumble when turned out. A densely packed mold holds its shape and cooks more evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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