Name: Milk or Cream Codfish
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon salt codfish, finely chopped; ½ cup milk or thin cream; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon flour or corn-starch; additional milk for wetting; 1 slice of bread for toast

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 ↓

Milk or Cream Codfish

Ingredients

1 tablespoon salt codfish, finely chopped
½ cup milk or thin cream
1 tablespoon butter
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon flour or corn-starch
additional milk for wetting
1 slice of bread for toast

Directions

Prepare the codfish

Soak the salt codfish in cold water and bring to a boil.
Drain the water and repeat if the fish is very salty.
Let the fish dry, then add milk or cream, butter, and pepper.

Make the sauce and serve

Mix flour or corn-starch with a little milk and add to the mixture.
Cook until it thickens, then serve over a slice of toasted bread.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Salt codfish: Provides the main savoury flavour and the flaky texture of the dish.
Milk or thin cream: Forms the liquid base that becomes the creamy sauce.
Butter: Adds richness and fat for a smoother mouthfeel.
Flour or corn-starch: Thickens the milk so the mixture becomes a sauce as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook until it thickens. Starch needs to be heated fully to swell and thicken the milk. Stopping too early leaves a thin sauce, while overcooking can make it stick to the pan or turn gluey.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Milk or Cream Codfish