Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Cod Pish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dry the cod slices with a towel.
Season the fish with salt and pepper.
Dip each slice in the beaten egg yolk, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Heat lard in a pan until boiling.
Fry the coated cod slices until golden brown.
Drain excess fat and serve hot.
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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky, tender pieces.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating stays on during frying.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
- Lard
- Conducts heat for frying and helps the coating brown and crisp.
The step that matters
Dry the cod slices before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg yolk and bread crumbs from adhering evenly and turns steam during frying, which weakens the crust. Patting the fish dry helps the coating stick and crisp.
“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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