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Codfish and Potato Moulded and Bkrowned

A baked and fried codfish and potato mixture formed into a molded cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Codfish and Potato Moulded and Bkrowned

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the codfish, pepper, and cream; mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter a quart-sized tin mold and fill it evenly, leaving no spaces.

  2. Let it stand in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  3. Turn it out onto a sheet-iron frying plate.

  4. Cover with the egg yolk and bread crumbs, removing any excess.

Fry and serve

  1. Deep fry in hot lard until golden brown, testing the heat with a piece of bread.

  2. Carefully slide onto a platter and garnish with curled 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the cakes and hold the mixture together.
Codfish
Adds savory flavor and a flaky texture through the potato.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potatoes.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.
Egg yolk
Binds the surface and helps the coating brown.

The step that matters

Deep fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs excess fat and turns greasy before it browns. Testing with a piece of bread shows whether the fat is hot enough for quick browning.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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