Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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.
Flour a cloth and tightly wrap the fish in it.
Cook and serve
Put the wrapped fish into boiling water.
Once boiling, cook for 30 minutes or according to the size of the fish.
Serve with drawn butter 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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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,948 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in boiling water.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fish and, during the soak, helps firm the flesh and draw out impurities.
The step that matters
Cooking time for the wrapped fish. Cooking time depends on the fish's size. Overcooking dries and toughens the flesh, while undercooking leaves it translucent near the bone. Check that the thickest part flakes easily before serving.
“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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