Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Boiled Cod-fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the cod fish overnight.
Cook and serve
Place the soaked fish in a pan filled with water.
Simmer for two to three hours.
Serve with drawn butter and sliced hard-boiled eggs.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,782 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod fish
- Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it cooks gently in water.
- Drawn butter
- Adds richness and fat that complements the mild, lean flesh of the fish.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add a soft, creamy texture and mild richness alongside the fish.
The step that matters
Simmer for two to three hours. Fish proteins set and toughen if heated too hard or too long, so the water should stay at a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil, keeping the flesh moist and flaky.
“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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