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To Stew Cod

A cod stew with butter, wine, water, onions, pickled mushrooms, oysters, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

To Stew Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the cod into slices for frying.

  2. Fry the cod in butter until half cooked.

  3. Remove the cod and place it in a stew pan.

  4. Add equal portions of wine and water to cover the fish.

  5. Season with nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

Make the gravy and finish the stew

  1. In the remaining butter, fry an onion until soft.

  2. Prepare fish gravy with the cod bones.

  3. Add the fish gravy to the onion and butter.

  4. Add the rolled butter, pickled mushrooms, chopped oysters, and a squeeze of lemon.

  5. Once the fish is done, pour in the cooking liquid from the stew.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  3. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming flaky and tender as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and browns the cod and onion for flavour.
Wine
Contributes acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Oysters
Adds a briny, savoury flavour to the stew.
Pickled mushrooms
Adds tangy, savoury flavour that balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Once the fish is done, pour in the cooking liquid from the stew.. Cod turns dry and tough if overcooked, so it should be removed from heat as soon as it flakes. Adding the flavourful liquid afterward keeps the fish moist and the broth well seasoned.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, wine, nutmeg, pepper, egg, flour, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, wine, nutmeg, pepper, egg, flour, mushroom. 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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