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Crimped Cod a LA Colbert

Thinly sliced cod, breaded and fried, served with a reduced fish broth and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Crimped Cod a LA Colbert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Skin the codfish, remove the bones, and cut into thin slices.

  2. Soak the sliced cod in well-salted cold water for one hour.

Make the fish essence

  1. Boil the cod skin and bones with half a carrot, sliced onion, herbs, six cloves, two bay leaves, and 2 cups hot water.

  2. Boil until reduced to ½ cup, then add the wine, strain, and keep hot in a double boiler.

Fry and serve

  1. Bread the sliced cod.

  2. Fry the breaded cod.

  3. Spread lightly with maitre d'hotel butter.

  4. Serve on a little fish essence on a hot dish.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together827 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Codfish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked into delicate flaky slices.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumbs to the cod so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the finished fish.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the fish essence sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the breaded cod. Breaded cod can absorb excess oil or burn if the fat is not hot enough or is too hot. Moderate, steady heat lets the crumb brown while the thin fish cooks through gently and stays moist.

“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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