Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Salt Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cod
Soak the salt cod in water overnight to freshen it.
Place the cod in cold water and bring it gradually to a boil.
Reduce heat and keep the cod hot for 30 minutes.
Serve and make fish balls
Flake the cod and serve with milk sauce.
For fish balls, mix the flaked cod with an equal amount of mashed potato.
Form the mixture into balls and fry in hot fat.
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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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt cod
- Provides the main flavour and flaky texture once soaked and cooked.
- Mashed potato
- Binds the flaked cod and adds moisture and body to the fish balls.
- Milk sauce
- Adds creamy richness and moisture to the flaked cod when served.
The step that matters
Bring the cod gradually to a boil. Heating the cod slowly from cold water helps it cook evenly and stay tender, rather than becoming tough and dry as proteins contract when heated too fast.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sauce):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Mustardfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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