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To Dress Cod Fish

A baked cod fish dish with a potato, onion, and butter mixture in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Dress Cod Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the cod fish until tender and remove the bones.

  2. Combine the chopped potatoes or parsnips, boiled onions, melted butter, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and brandy or wine in a bowl.

  3. Mix the ingredients in a mortar until well combined.

  4. If too stiff, add cream or thickened milk to achieve desired consistency.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place pastry in the bottom of a baking dish.

  2. Pour the fish mixture into the pastry.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

Variation

  1. For variation, shape the mixture into patties and bake.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the flaky texture.
Potatoes or parsnips
Adds starch and body, helping bind the filling together.
Onions
Adds soft sweetness and savory depth to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Cream or thickened milk
Loosens the mixture to a softer, moister consistency when it is too stiff.

The step that matters

Adding cream or thickened milk. Adding liquid only as needed keeps the filling moist without making it loose. Too much liquid can make the pie watery, while too little leaves it dry and stiff.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, butter, nutmeg, pepper, brandy, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, butter, nutmeg, pepper, brandy, cream. 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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