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Boiled Codfish

A simple boiled codfish served with hard‑boiled eggs, drawn butter, and baked new potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the codfish well and soak it overnight in cold water.

Cook

  1. Place the codfish in a pot with cold water to cover it by at least an inch.

  2. Bring the water slowly to a boil, then simmer for about an hour or until the fish is tender.

Serve

  1. Serve the codfish with a border of sliced hard-boiled eggs and a little drawn butter for sauce.

  2. Baked new potatoes make an excellent accompaniment.

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 + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, flaking into tender pieces when simmered gently.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mild fish as a sauce.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add a soft, creamy texture and mild richness alongside the fish.

The step that matters

Bring the water slowly to a boil, then simmer. Starting in cold water and heating gradually, then holding at a gentle simmer, keeps the proteins in the fish from tightening and drying out, so it stays tender rather than tough.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sauce. 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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