Why it works: Nutmeg and mace match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,557 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the forcemeat
Make the forcemeat by mixing the oysters, anchovies, bread crumbs, butter, eggs, and seasonings together.
Wash the cod sounds.
Boil the cod sounds in a mixture of milk and water for 1 hour.
Remove the sounds and let them cool.
Stuff and cook
Cover each sound with a layer of forcemeat.
Roll the sounds up neatly and skewer them.
Grease with lard.
Dredge with flour.
Cook gently in a Dutch oven for 1 hour.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Nutmeg + macetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Oyster + breadtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,544 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,093 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 sounds
- Form the main body that is wrapped around the forcemeat and holds the dish together.
- Oysters
- Add briny, savoury flavour to the forcemeat.
- Bread crumbs
- Bulk out the forcemeat and soak up moisture, giving it a soft, stuffing-like texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when rolled and cooked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the forcemeat moist.
- Flour
- Dusted on the outside to help the surface brown during cooking.
The step that matters
Rolling and skewering the sounds. If the forcemeat is spread too thickly or the roll is loose, it can fall out or cook unevenly. A neat, firm roll held by skewers keeps the filling inside and the shape intact during gentle cooking.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, bread, butter, egg, pepper, nutmeg, flour):
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, bread, butter, egg, pepper, nutmeg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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