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To Boil Fresh Cod

A boiled fresh cod dish seasoned with salt, served with oyster sauce or a butter‑port wine‑soy sauce mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

To Boil Fresh Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the fish, removing the roe and liver.

  2. Rub coarse sea salt on the inside of the fish.

  3. If it is very cold, keep the fish until the next day.

Boil

  1. Fill a fish kettle with enough water to cover the fish and add a large handful of salt.

  2. Once the salt is completely dissolved, add the fish.

  3. Cook a small codfish for about 20 minutes and a large one for 30 minutes or more after the water boils.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with the fried roe and liver or scraped horseradish.

  2. Serve with oyster sauce or a sauce made from melted butter, port wine, and soy sauce.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Oyster + port winetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh cod
Is the main protein, cooked gently in salted water until it turns firm and flaky.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the flesh when rubbed on and seasons the poaching water.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, carrying flavour and smoothness.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury, salty depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking time after the water boils. Cod turns from moist and tender to dry and chalky if overcooked, and timing depends on the fish's size. Start counting only once the water has boiled, and check the thickest part for flakiness.

“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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