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Codfish and Potatoes-bouillabaisse Op Cod

A fish stew of cod and potatoes simmered with leeks, herbs, saffron, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and leek work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Codfish and Potatoes-bouillabaisse Op Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped leeks or onion and cook until golden, but not burnt.

  3. Pour in the quart of water, add the bunch of herbs, and the saffron tied in muslin.

  4. Add the peeled potatoes and bring to a boil.

Cook and serve

  1. Once the potatoes are nearly cooked, cut the cod into slices and add to the pot.

  2. Cook slowly for 20 minutes, then remove the fish and place it on a hot dish with the potatoes around it.

  3. Season the broth, bring it to a boil, and strain it over slices of bread in a hot dish.

  4. Serve with the fish.

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. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Leek + saffrontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Potato + saffrontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Leek + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together848 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Murray cod
Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into tender pieces as it cooks gently in the broth.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the broth slightly and giving the dish a substantial texture.
Leeks or onion
Sweeten and build a savoury base when cooked gently in butter until golden.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and adds richness and flavour to the broth.
Saffron
Contributes a distinctive aroma and golden colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Cooking the cod in the broth. Add the fish only when the potatoes are nearly cooked and simmer gently. Fish proteins set and toughen with prolonged or vigorous heat, so gentle cooking keeps the slices moist and tender.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, leek, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, leek, butter. 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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