Why it works: Fish and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,341 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Crimped Cod-fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the cod fish slices in ice water for 2 hours.
Cook
Place the slices in a stew pan and cover with salted boiling water.
Simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve
Transfer the fish to a platter lined with a folded napkin.
Garnish with parsley and pour tartare or pickle sauce into the cavities of the fish.
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 + parsleytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,341 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,487 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,693 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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, with flaky texture when cooked gently.
The step that matters
Simmering the cod. Cod is delicate, and boiling it hard can break the flesh apart and toughen it. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly while it stays moist and intact.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sauce):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sauce. 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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