Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Baked Cod
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
Cut a large piece from the middle of the cod and skin it carefully.
Stuff and close
Stuff the fish with a mixture of hard‑boiled egg yolks, bread crumbs, grated lemon peel, butter, pepper, and salt.
Seal the stuffing with the egg white and sew it in with white thread.
Bake and serve
Bake in a tin baking dish at 400°F (200°C), turning frequently and basting with butter.
Serve with shrimp sauce, plain butter, or oyster sauce.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky tenderness in the oven.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Add richness and a creamy texture to the stuffing.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up butter and juices, giving the stuffing body and moisture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for moisture and browning as the fish bakes and is basted.
- Egg white
- Binds the stuffing and seals the opening so it holds together while baking.
The step that matters
Sew the stuffing closed. If the seal is loose, the stuffing can leak out during baking. The egg white helps bind the closure so the filling stays inside the fish.
“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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