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Baked Cod

A baked cod steak topped with a butter‑anchovy sauce, served with mashed potatoes and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Baked Cod

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Baked Cod

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cod

  1. Fry the cod steaks carefully in 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Season the steaks with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and lemon juice.

  3. Place the steaks in a buttered baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes until easily pierced.

Make the sauce

  1. While the cod is baking, melt 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add 1 ounce of flour and gradually whisk in 2 cups of milk.

  3. Stir in the anchovy essence and 2 cups of stock.

Serve

  1. Arrange mashed potatoes around the cod steaks and garnish with walnuts.

  2. Pour the sauce between the steaks, not over them.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cod steaks
Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish brown lightly when fried.
Flour
Thickens the milk and stock into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Milk
Provides the creamy base of the sauce and adds body.
Anchovy essence
Adds a savory, salty depth to the sauce.
Mashed potatoes
Provide a soft, starchy base that sits alongside the cod.

The step that matters

Pour the sauce between the steaks, not over them. Spooning sauce over the fish can make the crisp-fried surface soggy and dilute its flavor. Keeping the sauce beside the steaks preserves the fish's texture and the sauce's consistency.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, lemon, sauce, anchovy, flour, milk):

  1. Walnutthe original
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Almondfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, lemon, sauce, anchovy, flour, milk. 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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