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Cod and Macaroni

A baked cod and macaroni dish with butter sauce, egg yolk, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cod and Macaroni

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the cod and break it into small pieces.

  2. Boil the macaroni until tender, then drain and cut it into short, equal lengths.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, season with salt, cayenne, and lemon juice, and let it boil.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolk, ensuring the sauce does not boil after adding the egg.

  3. Combine the cod and macaroni with the sauce and heat until warm.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, cover with grated bread crumbs, and brown the top in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Cod
Provides the main flaky protein and body of the dish.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a firm, chewy texture that holds the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and keeps the sauce smooth.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce and helps it bind when stirred in off the heat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter sauce.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk to the sauce. Egg yolk thickens by gently setting around 160°F (70°C). If the sauce boils after the yolk goes in, it can curdle and turn grainy, so the pan should be off the heat when the yolk is stirred in.

“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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