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Codfish or Halibut with Oyster Sauce

Cod or halibut simmered in a broth, finished with a sauce of butter, flour, fish broth, oysters, lemon, egg yolks, cream, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,053 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Codfish or Halibut with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Wash the fish thoroughly.

  2. In a fish kettle, combine water, salt, onion, carrot, bay leaf, parsley, and peppercorns in cheesecloth.

  3. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the fish.

  5. Reduce heat to barely simmer.

  6. Cook until the flesh separates from the bones.

  7. Lift the fish onto a draining rack.

  8. Let it drain thoroughly.

  9. Transfer the fish to a hot platter.

  10. Surround the fish with sliced boiled potatoes.

Make the oyster sauce

  1. In a small saucepan, melt butter and flour together.

  2. Add fish broth.

  3. Stir until smooth and thick.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Add chopped oysters.

  6. Cook for 3 minutes.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Stir in lemon juice, egg yolks mixed with cream, and chopped 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Fish + oystertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together488 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod or halibut
Forms the flaky main body of the dish, cooked until the flesh separates from the bones.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour when melted with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the fish broth into a smooth, stable sauce when cooked with butter.
Fish broth
Provides the liquid base of the sauce, giving it savoury fish flavour.
Oysters
Add briny flavour and tender texture to the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and smoothness.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and cream off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before adding them keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsley, butter, flour, fish, pepper, oyster):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsley, butter, flour, fish, pepper, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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