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Matelote of Cod-fish, or Cod-fish Stew

A cod fish stew made with oysters, bread crumbs, butter, onion, egg, parsley, and pork, baked with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Matelote of Cod-fish, or Cod-fish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut off the head of the cod fish and remove the bones.

  2. Fill the fish with a dressing made from oysters, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, butter, onion, egg, and parsley.

  3. Place 5 slices of pork under and over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Boil the bones in 1 pint of water and pour this around the fish.

  2. Bake for 1 hour, basting often with gravy and butter.

  3. Add a bouquet of herbs in the corner of the baking pan.

  4. Make a gravy and pour it around the fish.

  5. Garnish with fried smelts.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into moist, flaky pieces.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor to the dressing stuffed inside the fish.
Bread crumbs
Soak up liquid and give the stuffing bulk and a soft texture.
Egg
Binds the dressing so it holds together when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Pork
Its fat renders over the fish, adding savory flavor and moisture.

The step that matters

Bake for 1 hour, basting often with gravy and butter. Cod is lean and dries out easily in the oven. Frequent basting spreads fat and liquid over the surface, keeping the flesh moist while it cooks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, oyster, bread, pepper, butter, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, oyster, bread, pepper, butter, egg, parsley. 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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