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Lenten Eggs on Codfish Cakes

Mashed salt codfish and potato cakes, coated in bread crumbs and fried, topped with poached eggs.

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 ↓

Lenten Eggs on Codfish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cakes

  1. Boil the codfish and potatoes in a stew pan of water until the potatoes are tender.

  2. Mash the codfish and potatoes together.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and pepper, then mix well.

  4. Form the mixture into flat cakes and dip in bread crumbs.

  5. Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown.

  6. Drain the cakes on paper.

Poach the eggs

  1. Poach the eggs in an egg poacher.

  2. Place the poached eggs on top of the codfish cakes.

Make the bacon topping

  1. In a fry-pan, cook the finely chopped bacon until the fat is rendered.

  2. Add the onion and stir.

  3. Remove from heat and add vinegar.

  4. Pour over the poached eggs before serving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Provides the main savory flavour and firm, flaky body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture that holds the cakes together.
Eggs
Bind the cake mixture and provide the soft, runny poached topping.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown crust when the cakes are fried.
Bacon
Renders fat that adds smoky, savory flavour to the topping.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich bacon topping.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly, but not so hot that the outside burns before the centre of the cake heats through.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, butter, bread, vinegar. 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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