Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cod-fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cod
Soak the cod fish in cold water overnight to freshen it.
An hour before dinner, drain the water and break the fish into pieces.
Cook
Place the fish in a pan with enough cold water to cover it and heat slowly until it just scalds; do not boil.
Pour off the water and add enough milk to cover the fish.
Mix the flour with a little cold milk until smooth, then add it to the pan.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, add the eggs and butter, and season with pepper and salt.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 fish
- Provides the main body and flaky texture of the dish.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and creaminess as it cooks around the fish.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, light sauce.
- Eggs
- Enrich the sauce and help it set to a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Heating the fish without boiling. Heating slowly until the water just scalds keeps the cod tender. Boiling toughens the proteins and makes the fish dry and rubbery.
“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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