Name: Bacalao a LA Vizcaína
Ingredients: One pound of fresh codfish filets (ideally) or canned or salted codfish. If you must use salted codfish, boil in a pint of water for one or two minutes, drain, add fresh water and repeat, boiling and rinsing until the fish is rid of salt taste to your personal satisfaction. With a fork, tear the cod; 1/2 cup olive oil (preferably) or your favorite cooking oil; A teaspoon of butter or margarine; 1/2 cup tomato sauce; 1/2 cup medium sized olives, stuffed with peppers or onions, or your favorite olives; 1 tablespoonful of capers; One tablespoonful of ground garlic; Two large red, ripe peppers, sliced lengthwise; One pound of cooking potatoes. To enhance the appearance of your dish, select neatly oval-shaped potatoes; slice them on their sides to make almost-round pieces, each about as thick as your index finger.; 1/3 cup of raisins. This is a key ingredient in the aroma and the taste. Modify at your discretion.; One ounce of grain vodka (optional)

Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

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.

Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,688 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Capers + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together834 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish: Forms the main body of the dish, supplying the flaky, savory base of the layers.
Potatoes: Form the sliced layers that hold the cod paste and add starchy body to the dish.
Olive oil: Carries flavor and moisture through the layers and coats the surface during cooking.
Tomato sauce: Adds moisture, acidity and color to the sauce that flavors the cod.
Raisins: Add sweetness that balances the salty fish and savory sauce.
Red peppers: Add sweetness and a mild, aromatic flavor to the sautéed base.

The step that matters

Blending the codfish into a uniform paste. Salted cod must be desalted first, and a smooth, even paste spreads evenly between potato layers so the dish cooks uniformly and tastes balanced rather than salty in patches.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, olive, butter, tomato, sauce, capers, pepper):

Parsleyfits better
Tarragonfits better
Thymefits about as well
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, olive, butter, tomato, sauce, capers, pepper. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Capers	1 tbsp (9g) drained	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Codfish	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Vodka	not in our table	0

Bacalao a LA Vizcaína