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Cod Steak with Macaroni

Baked cod steak topped with breadcrumb stuffing and macaroni, finished with anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cod Steak with Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Wipe the fish and place it on a buttered baking tin.

  2. Prepare a stuffing with the bread crumbs, savory herbs, and parsley; bind with a little beaten egg.

  3. Place the stuffing on top of the fish.

Top and bake

  1. Sprinkle the cooked macaroni with grated cheese and place it on top of the stuffing.

  2. Bake for about 20 minutes in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).

Sauce and serve

  1. Prepare anchovy sauce.

  2. Once cooked, pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky, tender pieces.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy layer that sits on top of the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Form the stuffing's body and absorb moisture, giving it a firmer texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the stuffing and tin surface brown lightly.
Flour
Thickens the anchovy sauce so it coats the fish rather than running off.
Fish stock or milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the anchovy flavour.

The step that matters

Thickening the anchovy sauce. Flour must be cooked smoothly into the butter and liquid, or it forms lumps. Gentle simmering lets the starch swell fully, so the sauce thickens evenly and coats the fish.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, flour, fish, anchovy, cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, flour, fish, anchovy, cheese. 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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