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Fried Cod and Haddock

A fried fish dish made with cod and haddock coated in Indian meal and cooked with salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Cod and Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and gut the codfish and haddock, then split them down the back and remove the backbone.

  2. Cut the fish into pieces about 2 inches square, season with salt and pepper, and roll in Indian meal.

Fry the pork and fish

  1. Slice the salt pork and brown it in a frying pan.

  2. Remove the fried pork and keep it warm.

  3. If the pork hasn't released enough fat, add lard to the pan to cover the bottom by ½ inch.

  4. Heat the pan until the fat is smoking hot, then add the fish and brown it on both sides.

  5. Serve the fried fish with the fried pork.

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. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  2. Haddock + porktop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Haddock + peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together696 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main flesh of the dish, cooking to flaky white pieces.
Haddock
Adds more flaky white fish flesh, giving the dish its body.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan and crisps, flavouring the frying fat.
Indian meal
Coats the fish so it forms a crisp, browned crust when fried.
Lard
Provides frying fat that browns the fish evenly at high heat.

The step that matters

Heat the fat until smoking hot before adding the fish. If the fat is not hot enough, the coated fish absorbs oil and steams instead of browning, leaving a greasy, pale crust. Very hot fat sears the coating quickly and seals the surface.

“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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