Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 553 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stewed Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the cod
Bring salted water to a boil and gently boil the cod slices for 5 minutes.
Remove the fish and let it drain.
Make the sauce and stew
In a wide stewpan, heat the veal gravy or broth.
Add the fish and stew for 5 minutes.
Stir in the bread crumbs and simmer for 3 minutes.
Mix the arrowroot with the sauce until smooth, then add mace, cayenne, essence of anchovies, white wine, and lemon juice.
Boil the mixture for 2 minutes.
Carefully lift out the fish, pour the sauce over it, and serve immediately.
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.
-
Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Fish + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together370 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod
- Forms the main body of the dish, staying flaky and moist when gently poached and stewed.
- Veal gravy or strong broth
- Provides the savoury liquid base that the sauce is built on.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and thicken the sauce, giving it body.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the sauce to a smooth, glossy texture without clouding it.
- Essence of anchovies
- Adds deep savoury, salty flavour to the sauce.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce.
The step that matters
Mixing the arrowroot into the sauce. Arrowroot must be fully dispersed in cool liquid before heating, or it clumps. Once it is fully mixed in and brought to a boil, it thickens the sauce to a smooth texture. Boiling it for the full time ensures it sets properly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, veal, bread, arrowroot, white wine, lemon):
- Capersfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, veal, bread, arrowroot, white wine, lemon. 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.
More stewed cod recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Fried Fish120 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.