Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cod Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook the cod
Soak the cod fish in cold water overnight.
Boil the cod fish in one piece until cooked through.
Brown the onions and serve
In a separate pan, brown the sliced onions slowly in melted butter.
Serve the cod fish very hot, topped with the browned onions.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod fish
- Forms the main body of the dish; boiling firms its flesh until it is cooked through.
- Sliced onions
- Browning slowly builds sweetness and savory depth through caramelization.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and carries flavor when it cooks the onions.
The step that matters
Boil the cod fish until cooked through. Cod has lean flesh with little fat, so overcooking tightens its proteins and makes it dry and tough. Stop as soon as it is opaque and flakes easily.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter. 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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