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Creamed Codfish

A baked codfish dish with a creamy sauce topped with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Codfish

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

  1. Shred the codfish into very small pieces and wash thoroughly in cold water.

Make the custard

  1. Pour milk or cream over the codfish and bring to a boil.

  2. Thicken the mixture with a little flour.

  3. Add a good-sized piece of butter and remove from heat.

  4. Stir in two well-beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and cover with a layer of mashed potatoes.

  2. Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, providing the savory flavor and flaky texture.
Milk or cream
Creates the moist, saucy base that cooks into a creamy mixture.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the mixture holds together rather than running.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the mixture and giving it a custard-like structure.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a top layer that browns in the oven for color and a contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs off the heat. Eggs are removed from the heat before they are added so they thicken gently. If the mixture is still boiling, the proteins can scramble and turn grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, butter, egg. 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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