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Shredded Codfish on the Half Shell

Potato shells filled with mashed potatoes, shredded codfish, eggs, and cheese, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Shredded Codfish on the Half Shell

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 potatoes

  1. Bake the potatoes at 400°F (200°C) until tender.

  2. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise without breaking the skin.

  3. Scoop out the potato into a hot bowl and mash it.

Make the filling

  1. Add the shredded codfish, butter, hot cream or milk, salt, and cayenne pepper to the mashed potatoes.

  2. Fold in the chopped hard-boiled eggs.

  3. Fill the potato shells with the mixture, heaping it slightly above the edge.

Bake and serve

  1. Grate cheese over the top and sprinkle with more pepper.

  2. Bake until hot and brown, then serve immediately.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together959 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the edible base and hold the filling inside their shells.
Codfish
Supplies the main savoury flavour of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mashed potato texture.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture so the mashed potato becomes smooth and spreadable.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding color and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until hot and brown, then serve immediately.. Browning depends on surface heat and dryness, and the filling must be hot all the way through. Baked potato loses heat and softens quickly, so serving promptly keeps the texture and temperature right.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, egg, cheese):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, egg, cheese. 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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