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Baked Cod

A cod fillet baked with a bread crumb and parsley dressing, served with a creamy tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Baked Cod

Why it works: Parsley and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,398 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Cod

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, salt, parsley, and egg.

  2. Fill the body of the cod with the dressing and sew it up.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cod in a pan and add boiling water.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. In a separate pot, thicken the cooking liquid with cream, flour, and tomato sauce.

  4. Let it boil once, then pour it over the fish before serving.

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. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tomato + white winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the bread crumb dressing so it holds together inside the fish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the dressing body and texture.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its flavor.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and color to the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour needs to be fully heated in the liquid to thicken and lose its raw starchy taste. Boiling it once after adding the cream, flour, and tomato sauce lets the starch swell evenly, while stirring prevents lumps.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, egg, cream, flour, sauce, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, egg, cream, flour, sauce, white wine. 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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