Name: Salt Fish
Ingredients: Salt fish; Water; Flour; Sweet butter; Salt pork; Bread; Milk; Pepper; Eggs

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salt Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the salt fish in a deep plate with just enough water to cover it overnight.
Heat scalding hot water and let the fish sit in it for 2-3 hours without boiling.
For the sauce, thicken water with flour and melt sweet butter into it.
Cut salt pork into bits and fry until brown and crispy, being careful not to scorch it.
Shred the codfish, wash it through several waters to remove salt, and boil for 5 minutes.
Drain the water and add milk, butter, pepper, salt, and flour to the codfish.
Toast slices of bread, dip them in hot water, and spread with butter.
Carefully poach eggs in boiling water without breaking the yolks, then lift them out.
Place the poached eggs on the toast, pour the codfish mixture over it, and serve.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together668 recipes

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