Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Season the cod fillets with salt and pepper.
Dredge the fillets in flour, coating them evenly.
Fry and drain
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
Fry the cod fillets until golden brown on both sides.
Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
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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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod fillets
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, moist interior.
- Flour
- Forms a coating that browns in the hot oil and gives the fish a crisp outside.
- Oil for frying
- Conducts heat to cook the coating and brown the fish surface.
The step that matters
Fry the cod fillets until golden brown on both sides. Oil that is hot enough browns the flour coating quickly, while the fish cooks through before the outside burns. Too cool an oil soaks in and makes the coating greasy.
“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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