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Cod Roe Cutlets

Cod roe cutlets are fried slices of cod roe coated in beaten egg and breadcrumbs, served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread 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 ↓

Cod Roe Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the roe

  1. Place the cod roe in a pan of salted boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Remove the roe from the boiling water and place it in cold water for a few minutes.

  3. Add vinegar and coarse sea salt to the cold water.

  4. Boil the roe for 30 minutes.

  5. Drain the roe well and let it cool.

Bread and fry

  1. Cut the roe into slices about ½ inch thick and trim the slices neatly.

  2. Brush the slices with beaten egg and cover them with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the slices in boiling oil until golden brown.

  4. Drain the slices well.

  5. Serve the slices on a napkin with parsley.

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

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

  2. Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

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

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. Roe + breadtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together123 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod roe
Forms the main body of the cutlets, setting firm when poached and holding its shape when sliced.
Beaten egg
Acts as a sticky binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the slices.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Vinegar
Adds a slight acidity to the cooking water, sharpening the flavour of the roe.

The step that matters

Fry the slices in boiling oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (roe, vinegar, egg, bread):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, vinegar, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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