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Salt Cod-fish

A baked cake made from soaked salt cod, butter, spices, onions, potatoes, and egg yolks, topped with breadcrumbs and sweet oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Cod-fish

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.

Prepare the cod

  1. Soak the salt codfish in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water several times and adding ⅓ cup vinegar each time.

  2. Boil the codfish until thoroughly cooked, then cut the flesh into very small pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the cod with parsley, butter, 1 tablespoon vinegar, Cayenne pepper, nutmeg, mace, boiled onions, mashed potatoes, and egg yolks.

  2. Shape the mixture into a thick round cake and place it in a deep dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the top with sweet oil and sprinkle bread crumbs over it.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown.

  3. Serve surrounded by triangular slices of toast dipped in melted butter.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Forms the main body of the cake, giving it its flavor and flaky texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the cake holds its shape when baked.
Mashed potatoes
Add body and moisture, keeping the fish mixture soft and tender.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the top of the cake in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and a softer texture.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt codfish. Salt cod is heavily salted for preservation. Soaking it for a full day, with the water changed often, draws out the excess salt. Skipping or shortening this leaves the cake too salty.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, pepper, nutmeg, onion, potato, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, pepper, nutmeg, onion, potato, egg. 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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