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Creamed Baked Cod

A baked cod dish with a creamy sauce, topped with cracker crumbs and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Creamed Baked Cod

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the cod for 20 minutes, then flake it with a fork.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the cream in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the butter and flour together, then add to the hot cream.

  3. Stir constantly until thick, then remove from heat.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, then stir in the flaked fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, top with cracker crumbs, and pour melted butter over it.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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
Forms the flaky body of the dish and is the main protein.
Cream
Provides richness and moisture, setting into a smooth custard-like sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a smooth sauce when stirred over heat.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and helps bind it as it cooks and sets.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce constantly until thick. Flour-thickened cream can scorch or form lumps if left unattended over heat. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce thickens evenly and smoothly.

“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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