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Codfish and Potato Moulded and Browned

A baked codfish and potato dish, 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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in the mashed potatoes.

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

Mold and bake

  1. Butter a quart-sized tin mold.

  2. Fill it evenly, leaving no spaces.

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

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

  5. Cover with the egg yolk and bread crumbs.

  6. Remove excess crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard.

  2. Test the lard with a piece of bread.

  3. Fry until golden brown.

  4. Slide onto a platter.

  5. 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
Forms the bulk of the casserole and gives a soft, moist body.
Codfish
Adds the main flavor and savory substance to the potato base.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potatoes.
Cream or rich milk
Loosens the mixture and adds moisture and softness.
Egg yolk
Enriches the surface and helps it brown during baking and frying.

The step that matters

Test the lard with a piece of bread. If the lard is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs fat and turns greasy; if too hot, it browns or burns before the inside warms. A bread cube sizzling steadily shows the right heat.

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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