Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Salt Codfish and Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the fish into slivers.
Place the fish in a porcelain or earthen pot.
Cook
Add cream, or milk with a little butter.
Cover the pot and cook over moderate heat for one hour or more, until tender.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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 protein and savory flavor that the dish is built around.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, gently softening the fish as it cooks.
The step that matters
Cover the pot and cook over moderate heat until tender. Gentle, covered heat keeps the cream from reducing or scorching while the fish slowly softens. Cooking too hot can toughen the fish and cause the cream to break or stick to the pot.
“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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