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Ackee and Saltfish

Ackee and saltfish is a Jamaican dish of salted codfish and ackee cooked with onions, peppers, and black pepper.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 68,474 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ackee and Saltfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the saltfish

  1. Soak saltfish in warm water to taste.

  2. After soaking, place the saltfish in cold water and boil.

  3. Pick up (flake) the saltfish and remove all bones.

Prepare the ackee

  1. Clean the ackee.

  2. Remove the seeds and all traces of interior red pit from the ackees.

  3. Wash the ackees five times.

  4. Cover and boil the ackees until moderately soft.

  5. Drain the ackees, cover, and set aside.

Cook and serve

  1. Sauté thinly sliced onions and sweet pepper rings.

  2. Remove half of the fried onions and peppers.

  3. Add the saltfish and the ackees.

  4. Turn the fire/stove up slightly.

  5. Add black pepper.

  6. Pour onto a serving plate.

  7. Garnish with the remaining onions and pepper slices.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

  1. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 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

Saltfish (codfish)
Provides the salty, savoury flavour and firm flaked texture that defines the dish.
Ackee
Gives the dish its soft, creamy, scrambled-egg-like texture and mild flavour.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it sautés, adding savoury depth to the base.
Sweet pepper
Adds sweetness, colour and a slight crispness from the quick sauté.

The step that matters

Remove the seeds and red pit from the ackee. Unripe or improperly cleaned ackee contains toxic compounds, and the red interior membrane must be fully removed before boiling. Cooking the fruit until moderately soft, then draining it well, keeps the final dish from being watery or unsafe.

“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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