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Entree of Crimpd Cod

Fried cod fillets coated in batter and served with oyster sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and oyster work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 505 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter

Directions

Poach the cod

  1. Boil a slice of crimped cod in salted water for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the cod and flake it into pieces once cool.

Batter and fry

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, sweet oil, white wine, and a little salt to make a batter.

  2. Heat lard in a pan until boiling hot.

  3. Dip each flake of cod into the batter and fry until golden brown.

  4. Drain the fried cod on paper towels.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried parsley and oyster sauce in a butter boat.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. White wine + oystertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. White wine + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,868 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Oyster + saucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White wine + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together814 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the batter that coats the cod and crisps into a golden shell when fried.
Sweet oil
Adds fat to the batter, keeping the coating tender and helping it brown.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture to the batter, loosening it and adding aroma.
Lard
Frying fat that transfers heat quickly, browning the batter and sealing in moisture.

The step that matters

Fry the battered cod in very hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and soggy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the coating quickly and drives off surface moisture, producing a golden, crisp exterior.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, white wine, oyster, sauce):

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, white wine, oyster, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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