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Codfish Hash

A savory hash of boiled codfish, potatoes, salt pork, milk, and butter, simmered until a brown crust forms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Codfish Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the codfish and potatoes together in a bowl.

  2. Fry the salt pork in small pieces until browned, then remove half of the pork.

Cook the hash

  1. Add the fish and potatoes to the remaining pork and let it steam for 5 minutes without stirring.

  2. Add the milk and stir thoroughly.

  3. Place the remaining pork around the edge of the pan.

  4. Add a little butter on top.

  5. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes until a brown crust forms.

Serve

  1. Turn the hash onto a platter. Serve.

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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main flavor and the flaky, meaty body of the hash.
Potatoes
Supply starch that binds the hash and helps form a browned crust.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor, and its drippings brown the hash.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the mixture from drying out as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Leave the hash undisturbed while it cooks. Starch and fat from the potatoes and pork caramelize against the hot pan to form the brown crust. Stirring or lifting the hash breaks this layer and keeps the crust from forming.

“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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