Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Baked Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut a large piece from the middle of the cod and skin it carefully.
Prepare the stuffing by mixing the egg yolks, roe, bread crumbs, lemon peel, butter, pepper, and salt.
Bind the stuffing with the egg white and sew it into the fish using white thread.
Bake and serve
Bake in a tin baking dish in a Dutch oven, turning frequently and basting with butter.
Serve with shrimp sauce, plain 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.
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + roetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together243 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together442 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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 into flaky, tender portions.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the stuffing and help it hold together and set as it cooks.
- Egg white
- Binds the stuffing so it stays inside the fish while baking.
- Bread crumbs
- Add bulk and absorb moisture so the stuffing stays soft rather than runny.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and browns the surface when basted during baking.
The step that matters
Sew the stuffing into the fish. If the stuffing is loose or the stitches are weak, it can leak out during baking. Binding it with egg white helps it set and hold its shape in the fish.
“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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