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Stewed Codfish

A simple stewed codfish with eggs, butter, pepper, salt, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Stewed Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a skillet, bring 1 pint of water to a simmer.

  2. Add the soaked codfish pieces.

  3. Break 2 eggs into the skillet.

  4. Season with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, mix flour and milk to create a thickening agent.

  2. Stir the thickening into the skillet and cook until the mixture is thick enough.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 flavour and protein, flaking into the liquid as it cooks.
Eggs
Set when heated, adding body and richness to the stew.
Flour
Starch that thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the stew its body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and moisture, combining with flour to form the thickening.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and milk into the skillet. Flour thickens only when its starch is heated in liquid. Mix it smoothly into the hot mixture and keep stirring, or it may clump and the stew may stay thin or lumpy.

“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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