Name: Cost Codfish Hash
Ingredients: 10 ounces codfish; butter; 15 slices of bread; coffee

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 ↓

Cost Codfish Hash

Ingredients

10 ounces codfish
butter
15 slices of bread
coffee

Directions

Prepare the fish

Soak the codfish in water overnight.
Remove skin and bones, then flake the fish.

Cook and serve

In a skillet, melt butter and add the flaked codfish.
Cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.
Serve with buttered toast and coffee.

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).
Bread + coffeetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together267 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish: Provides the main protein and flavor of the hash, flaked into tender pieces.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the fish warm gently in the skillet without drying out.
Bread: Serves as buttered toast alongside the hash, adding a crisp, toasted contrast.

“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.