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Slices of Plain-boiled Codfish

Slices of codfish boiled plain, served with parsley and oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Slices of Plain-boiled Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Tie each slice of codfish tightly with a skewer and string.

  2. Place the tied slices in the larder until ready to boil.

  3. Prepare a fish kettle with boiling water and add a good handful of coarse sea salt.

Boil and serve

  1. Add the codfish slices to the boiling water and bring back to a boil quickly.

  2. Boil for about 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and keep covered until serving.

  4. Lift the codfish onto a large dish using a strainer, carefully remove the strings.

  5. Arrange the codfish on a napkin, garnish with parsley, and cover.

  6. Serve with two hot sauce bowls of oyster sauce.

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. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parsley + oystertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in boiling water until flaky and moist.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the fish is lightly flavoured from the outside in.
Oyster sauce
Adds a savoury, salty-sweet accompaniment that contrasts with the mild, delicate fish.

The step that matters

Bringing the water back to a boil quickly after adding the fish. Adding cold fish drops the water temperature. Returning it to a boil quickly keeps cooking time short and steady, so the fish stays tender rather than turning tough or falling apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sauce. 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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