Name: Codfish in Cream No. 2
Ingredients: ¼ cup salt fish, cut into ¼ inch dice; 1 cup thin cream; Cayenne pepper, to taste; Toast, for serving

Why it works: Fish and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,948 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Codfish in Cream No. 2

Ingredients

¼ cup salt fish, cut into ¼ inch dice
1 cup thin cream
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Toast, for serving

Directions

Prepare the fish

Pour boiling water over the diced salt fish and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Drain the fish and add it to a saucepan with the thin cream.

Cook and serve

Heat the mixture until it boils, then serve it over toast.
Sprinkle with a speck of cayenne pepper for added flavor.

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.

Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,948 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Fish + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together937 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Salt fish: Provides the main savory flavor and the substance of the dish.
Thin cream: Adds richness and moisture, forming the creamy sauce the fish is cooked in.

“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.