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Salt Cod

A breakfast dish of cakes or balls made from salted cod, potatoes, butter, pepper, flour, sweet milk or cream, and egg yolks.

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 ↓

Salt Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Pick the salt cod into small pieces, removing all bones.

  2. Soak the fish overnight, then drain and mix with an equal quantity of finely mashed potatoes, a lump of butter, and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Form the mixture into cakes or balls, lightly flour them, and fry until brown.

  2. Alternatively, boil the soaked fish in fresh water for about 30 minutes. Drain the water, then stir in 1 cup of sweet milk or cream mixed with the yolks of 2 eggs, a lump of butter, a little pepper, and a sprinkle of flour.

  3. Stir for a few minutes until well mixed for an excellent breakfast dish.

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

Salt cod
Provides the main savoury flavour and the flaky body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Mashed starch binds the fish and adds softness and moisture to the cakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and helping the cakes brown.
Flour
Light coating helps the outside of the cakes brown and crisp when fried.
Egg yolks
Enrich the milk mixture, adding richness and helping it set and bind.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt cod. Salt cod must be soaked long enough to remove excess salt and rehydrate the fish. Under-soaking leaves the cakes too salty and tough, while the fish still needs thorough draining so the mixture holds its shape.

Swap the potato

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

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

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