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Codfish Pie

A baked pie with codfish, mashed potatoes, and a buttery sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Codfish Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the codfish, remove the skin and bones, and break it into large flakes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then cook the mace and flour in it for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the milk, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously, then add the prepared fish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish.

  2. Spread a thick layer of mashed potatoes on top, smoothing it with a knife dipped in hot water.

  3. Brush the top with beaten egg and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  4. Serve garnished with parsley.

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

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

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  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

Codfish
Provides the main flaky filling that the sauce binds together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps form the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a soft topping that covers the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce as it comes to a boil. Flour thickens milk only when it is stirred constantly while heating; if left still it can scorch on the base or form lumps, leaving the sauce grainy and uneven.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, pepper, milk, potato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, pepper, milk, potato. 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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