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Baked Cod

A cod fillet stuffed with a breadcrumb and salt pork dressing, baked and served with a ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Baked Cod

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 ↓

Baked Cod

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Make a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, pepper, coarse sea salt, parsley, onion, and chopped salt pork.

  2. Add the egg to the dressing and mix well.

  3. Fill the body of the cod with the dressing and sew it up.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the fish in a large pan and lay strips of salt pork on top.

  3. Add 1 pint of water and a little salt to the pan.

  4. Bake for 1.5 hours, basting often with melted butter and flour.

  5. Once cooked, dish the fish.

  6. In the pan, mix in a little flour and butter, along with the ketchup, and bring to a boil.

  7. Pour the gravy over the fish before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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, cooking gently until flaky and moist.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together, helping it set as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish brown while basting.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a gravy.
Ketchup
Adds tangy, savory flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Sewing and filling the cod. The stuffing must be packed firmly but not overfilled, since it expands slightly as it heats. Loose sewing lets it leak out, and dense packing can keep the centre from cooking evenly through the thickest part of the fish.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, parsley, pork, egg, butter, flour. 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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