Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Salt Codfish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the codfish
Soak the codfish for several hours, changing the water three times.
Simmer the codfish for 20 minutes or until it is tender.
Carefully remove all the bones from the codfish.
Make the sauce
Make a white sauce by melting one tablespoonful of butter and one tablespoonful of flour, then adding one cupful of milk.
Off the fire, whisk in two beaten yolks into the sauce.
Return the sauce to the fire and stir in one cupful of shredded codfish.
Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper as needed.
Serve
Serve the dish on slices of toast, or place it in the center of a dish and surround it with triangular croutons.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Codfish | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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, providing its flavour and substance once shredded and cooked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, helping to carry flavour in the sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
- Two beaten yolks
- Enriches the sauce and thickens it gently when heated, adding richness and body.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten yolks off the fire. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they meet a hot sauce directly, so the sauce must be off the heat when they are whisked in to keep it smooth.
“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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