Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Place the cod in cold water with a handful of coarse sea salt and let it soak for one hour.
Scrape and wash the fish clean.
Rub a little coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper into the body of the fish.
Dust a cloth with flour, wrap the fish tightly, and secure it.
Boil and serve
Place the wrapped fish in boiling water and boil for thirty minutes, adjusting time based on the size of the fish.
Serve with drawn butter, chopped hard-boiled eggs, or oyster sauce.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,184 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,233 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cod head and shoulders
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole in its wrapping.
- Flour
- Dusted on the cloth so the wrapping does not stick to the fish.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Chopped and served alongside as a rich, creamy accompaniment.
- Drawn butter
- Served with the fish as a rich fat that adds moisture and flavour.
The step that matters
Boiling time for the wrapped fish. Thirty minutes is a starting point, and the time must be adjusted to the fish's size. Too short leaves the centre underdone, while too long makes the flesh dry and tough as the proteins over-tighten.
“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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