Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cod's Tongues with Egg Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cod's tongues
Wash the salt cod's tongues in cold water, then soak them in lukewarm water for at least 2 hours.
Place the soaked tongues in a pot, cover with cold water, and add the milk and red pepper or cayenne.
Cook slowly for about 30 minutes until tender.
Make the egg sauce
While the tongues are cooking, hard-boil the eggs, remove the shells, and chop them.
In a separate saucepan, melt the butter and flour together until bubbling.
Gradually stir in the milk and cooking water from the tongues to create a thick cream sauce.
Add the tongues to the sauce, mix in the chopped eggs, and serve hot.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Salt cod's tongue
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when soaked and slowly cooked.
- Butter and flour
- Melted together, they form a roux that thickens the milk into a cream sauce.
- Milk
- Enriches the sauce with creaminess and softens the flavour of the salt cod.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Chopped into the sauce, they add body and a mild, rich texture.
The step that matters
Gradually stirring in the liquid to the roux. Adding the milk and cooking water slowly while stirring keeps the flour dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.
“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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