Name: Codfish in Cream Sauce
Ingredients: 2 cups scalded salt codfish, in small bits; 2 cups milk; 4 tablespoons flour; 5 tablespoons milk (for dilution); a few grains white pepper; salt (to taste); 2 eggs, slightly beaten

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Codfish in Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

Soak the codfish in cold water for several hours, then drain and press out the water.

Make the sauce

Scald the milk in a double boiler.
Thicken the scalded milk with the flour diluted in 5 tablespoons of milk, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.
Add white pepper and salt if necessary, and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Finish and serve

Reheat the codfish in the sauce, then stir in the beaten eggs just 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.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Milk + white peppertop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,304 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Codfish: Provides the main savory flavor and texture of the dish.
Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Milk: Forms the base of the cream sauce, carrying the flavor and body.
Eggs: Add richness and body to the sauce when stirred in near the end.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the scalded milk. Flour added to hot liquid can clump unless it is diluted first and stirred constantly. Lumps form when starch hits heat unevenly, so a smooth sauce depends on this step.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg):

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Jalapenofits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg. 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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Codfish in Cream Sauce