Skip to main content
Main

Cod, Cold

Cold cod served with salt, pepper, vinegar, parsley, optional sauce, crumbs, potatoes, butter, and shellfish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

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

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the flesh from the skin and bones of the cooked cod while it is still warm.

  2. Arrange the cod in neat flakes on a plate.

Season and serve

  1. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Drizzle with vinegar and garnish with parsley.

  3. If using, pour any cold sauce over the fish.

Optional finish

  1. Optionally, spread bread crumbs or mashed potatoes on top, dot with butter, and brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. For variations, add oysters, mussels, cockles, or shrimp, heat gently, and serve.

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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,303 recipes

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

  5. Bread + oystertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,544 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked cod
Provides the flaky, tender main body of the dish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mild fish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown when baked.

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, parsley, sauce, bread, butter, oyster):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Shallotabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, parsley, sauce, bread, butter, oyster. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipesIllustration of Potato CroquettesIllustrationPotato Croquettes255 recipesIllustration of White BreadIllustrationWhite Bread80 recipesIllustration of Potato RollsIllustrationPotato Rolls78 recipes