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To Boil Fresh Cod

A boiled fresh cod served with oyster sauce or a butter‑port wine anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Boil Fresh Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and clean the fish, removing the roe and liver.

  2. Rub salt on the inside of the fish.

  3. If it's very cold, you can keep the fish until the next day.

Poach the cod

  1. Fill a fish kettle with enough water to cover the fish and add a large handful of salt.

  2. Bring the water to a boil until the salt is completely dissolved.

  3. Add the fish to the boiling water.

  4. Cook a small cod for about 20 minutes and a large one for 30 minutes or more.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with the fried roe and liver or scraped horseradish.

  2. Serve with oyster sauce or a sauce made by mixing melted butter with port wine and minced anchovy.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh cod
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming flaky and tender as it poaches.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the serving sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the butter sauce.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Dissolve the salt fully before adding the fish. Salt must fully dissolve and the water must be at a full boil before the fish goes in, so the water is evenly seasoned and the fish returns to a rolling boil quickly. Adding fish to undissolved salt or cooler water gives uneven seasoning and longer, less even cooking.

“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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