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Breakfast Codfish

A simple codfish breakfast cooked with cream, butter, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Breakfast Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Soak the shredded codfish overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the codfish and place it in a pot.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the cream or milk and the butter to the pot.

  2. Simmer slowly while stirring well.

  3. Remove from heat and pour the beaten egg over the mixture.

Finish

  1. Brown in the oven.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
Provides the main body and salty, savory flavor of the dish.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, creating a soft, creamy texture as it simmers.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel, and helps carry flavor.
Egg
Sets as it cooks, binding the mixture and giving it a firmer structure.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before adding the egg. Egg proteins set at fairly low heat, so pouring it into a hot mixture can scramble it into lumps. Taking the pot off the heat first lets the egg blend in smoothly and set gently in the oven.

“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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