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Curry of Cod

A creamy cod curry with onions, apple, and curry powder served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Curry of Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the cod and set aside.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Chop the onions and fry them until pale golden brown.

  4. Mix the flour and curry powder together and stir into the onions.

Make the curry

  1. Add the lemon juice to maintain the curry's color.

  2. Stir in the chopped apple and add the milk.

  3. Heat the mixture over low heat until it boils.

  4. Simmer gently for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.

  5. Add the cod broken into large flakes and the tomato sauce.

  6. Cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter with a border of hot rice.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they 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

Butter
Fat that cooks the onions and carries the curry flavor through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk-based sauce so it clings to the fish and onions.
Curry powder
Provides the main spice aroma and color of the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds creaminess as it simmers.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, building the body of the sauce.
Cod
Provides the flaky fish that is added near the end so it stays tender.

The step that matters

Simmering the milk sauce. Milk can scorch or curdle if it boils hard or sits over high heat. Simmering gently for a long time, with occasional stirring, keeps the sauce smooth and prevents it from sticking to the pan.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, lemon, milk, flour, tomato, sauce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, lemon, milk, flour, tomato, sauce. 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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