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Salt Codfish

A baked casserole of salt cod, potatoes, boiled eggs, condensed milk, water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the salt codfish for about 20 minutes.

  2. Peel and boil the potatoes until tender.

  3. Slice the potatoes and boiled eggs thinly.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a dish, layer the fish, potatoes, and eggs alternately until all are used.

  2. Mix the condensed milk with water and pour over the layers.

  3. Dot the top with butter. Cover the dish.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

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. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Condensed milk + buttertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together711 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + condensed milktop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Provides the main savory, salty flavor and the flaky meaty body of the dish.
Potatoes
Form the starchy layers that soften and bind the casserole into a tender, sliceable mass.
Boiled eggs
Add richness and body to the layers as they set during baking.
Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and creaminess, and helps the layers become moist and custard-like as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the top, encouraging gentle browning.

The step that matters

Pour the condensed milk mixture over the layers. The milk and water mixture must fully reach the layers before baking. Liquid carries the flavor through the dish and keeps the starch from drying out as it bakes, so the casserole stays moist rather than dry.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, condensed milk, butter):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, condensed milk, 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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