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Salt Codfish Hash

A hash of salt codfish and mashed potatoes, cooked with butter and milk, then fried until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Codfish Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the hash

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped salt codfish and mashed potatoes.

  2. Add butter and enough milk to achieve a soft consistency.

  3. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a pot and heat while stirring constantly.

Fry and serve

  1. In a frying pan, melt enough butter or beef dripping to cover the bottom.

  2. Once hot, press the hash firmly into the pan and fry gently.

  3. When the bottom is browned, carefully turn it out onto a hot dish and serve.

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

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Provides the savory, salty flavour that defines the hash.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the fish and give the hash its soft, starchy body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the bottom brown in the pan.
Milk
Moistens the mixture so it softens and binds evenly.

The step that matters

Frying the bottom until browned. Pressing the hash firmly and frying gently over steady heat lets a crust form on the bottom. Too little fat or too high heat can scorch it before the centre is hot.

Swap the potato

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

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

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