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Curried Cod

A cod dish simmered in butter, onion, stock, flour, curry powder, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Flake the fish and fry it in the butter with the onion until golden brown.

  2. Transfer the fish and onion to a stewpan, add the stock, and the flour mixed with a little stock.

  3. Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the curry powder with the cream, starting with a small amount of cream.

  2. Add the curry mixture to the stewpan, let it boil once, 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the main protein, flaking into tender pieces in the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion and fish brown during frying.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce as it simmers.
Cream
Adds moisture and a mellow, rounded texture to the curry sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavor that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Adding the curry mixture. Curry powder mixed into cream first disperses evenly and avoids lumps. Boiling the sauce once after adding it is enough, since prolonged boiling can make cream separate and curdle.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, flour, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, flour, pepper. 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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