Skip to main content
Main

Codfish a LA Creme

A baked codfish dish with Worcestershire, anchovy sauce, butter, cream, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Codfish a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Scald the codfish and break it into pieces.

  2. Mix the codfish with Worcestershire sauce, anchovy sauce, butter, and cream.

  3. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.

Bake and serve

  1. In a pudding dish, layer the codfish mixture and top with the mashed potatoes.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes, or until nicely browned.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the dish, giving it its flaky, savoury filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and keeping the mixture moist.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the codfish mixture stay soft and creamy.
Potatoes
Form the mashed topping that becomes golden and browned in the oven.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth to the codfish mixture.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. The mashed potato topping browns through the Maillard reaction at oven heat, which gives colour and flavour. Stopping too early leaves it pale, while overbaking can dry the creamy filling beneath.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, anchovy, butter, cream):

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, anchovy, butter, cream. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes