Name: Cod Pib
Ingredients: leftover cold cod; 12 oysters; ½ cup melted butter; mashed potatoes

Why it works: Oyster and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,175 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

leftover cold cod
12 oysters
½ cup melted butter
mashed potatoes

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

Flake the fish from the bone and remove all the skin.
Lay the fish in a pie dish.

Assemble

Pour the melted butter and oysters over the fish.
Cover with mashed potatoes.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
Serve when golden 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together8,175 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Butter + potatotop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,445 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Oyster + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together228 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod: Forms the main body of the pie, providing the flaky filling.
Oysters: Add a briny, savoury flavour that seasons the fish.
Melted butter: Adds richness and moisture so the fish does not dry out while baking.
Mashed potatoes: Form the topping that browns in the oven and seals in the filling.

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

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

Potatothe original
Cucumberabout as good a flavor fit
Shallotabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter. 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.