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Fried Cod and Haddock

A fried fish dish of cod and haddock seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in Indian meal, and cooked in lard and salt pork.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,121 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Cod and Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and draw the fish, then split it down the back and remove the backbone.

  2. Cut the fish into pieces about 2 inches square and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Roll the fish pieces in Indian meal.

Fry and serve

  1. Slice the salt pork and brown it in a frying pan.

  2. Remove the fried pork and keep it warm.

  3. If needed, add enough lard to the pan to cover the bottom by ½ inch.

  4. Heat the pan until the fat is smoking hot, then add the fish and brown it on both sides.

  5. Serve the fried fish with the fried pork.

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. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  2. Haddock + porktop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Haddock + peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together696 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main flaky body of the dish once cooked.
Haddock
Adds more flaky fish, sharing the body of the dish with the cod.
Indian meal
Coats the fish so it browns and forms a crisp crust when fried.
Salt pork
Renders fat into the pan and adds savory flavor to the frying fat.

The step that matters

Heating the fat before frying the fish. The fat must be smoking hot before the fish goes in. Hot fat sears the cornmeal coating quickly, creating a crisp crust and limiting how much oil the fish absorbs. Cooler fat soaks in and makes the fish greasy and soft.

“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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