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Codfish on Toast

Codfish served on toasted bread with a tomato and onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Codfish on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If the codfish is salty, freshen it by soaking in water.

  2. Fry the minced onion until brown.

  3. Add the tomatoes and cut the codfish into small pieces.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook for 30 minutes, thickening slightly.

  2. Toast the bread slices and moisten them with hot water.

  3. Place the fish mixture over the toast and serve hot.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main protein of the dish, flaking into the tomato mixture as it cooks.
Onion
Browning in the pan adds savory depth and aroma to the sauce.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and moisture, and thicken into a sauce as they cook down.
Bread
Forms the base, softened by hot water so it soaks up the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Cook for 30 minutes, thickening slightly. Simmering long enough lets the tomato liquid reduce and thicken into a sauce that clings to the toast rather than running off it. Stopping early leaves the topping watery and soaks the bread.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread. 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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