Name: Important Remarks on Cod-liver Oil
Ingredients: 1 pound fresh cod-liver; 2 pounds floury potatoes; melted butter; anchovies

Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Important Remarks on Cod-liver Oil

Ingredients

1 pound fresh cod-liver
2 pounds floury potatoes
melted butter
anchovies

Directions

Prepare

Peel and steam the potatoes until tender.
Cut the cod-liver into four pieces.

Steam

Place the cod-liver over the steamed potatoes.
Steam the potatoes and cod-liver together, allowing the oil to fall on the potatoes.
Make incisions in the cod-liver to extract more oil.

Serve

Serve the cod-liver with melted butter and anchovies.

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.

Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Liver + buttertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Liver + potatotop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together108 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod-liver: Supplies the oil, which melts and drips onto the potatoes as they steam.
Floury potatoes: Absorb the dripping oil and become soft and moist when steamed.
Melted butter: Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the serving.
Anchovies: Add a salty, savoury accent that balances the richness of the liver.