Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Salt Codfish in Milk
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the salt codfish in water overnight.
Place the soaked fish in an earthen dish, cover it with milk, and add the wheat germ meal.
Cook
Cook in an Aladdin Pail for five hours.
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.
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Wheat + fishtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt codfish
- Main protein; soaking draws out its salt so the fish can be eaten.
- Milk
- Cooks the fish gently in liquid, keeping it moist and tender while adding a creamy richness.
The step that matters
Soak the salt codfish overnight. Salt cod is preserved with a heavy coating of salt. Soaking in water draws out much of that salt and softens the dense flesh. Skipping or shortening the soak leaves the finished dish too salty and tough.
“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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