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Salt Cod

Salt cod simmered with onion, celery, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the salt cod in water for several hours or overnight to remove excess salt.

Cook the cod

  1. In a pot, combine the soaked cod, chopped onion, and celery.

  2. Add enough water to cover the ingredients and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer until the cod is tender.

Brown the potatoes and serve

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter or drippings and sauté the diced potatoes until golden brown.

  2. Serve the cod with the sautéed potatoes on the side.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod
Forms the main body of the dish; soaking removes excess salt so it can be cooked tender.
Butter or drippings
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps potatoes brown in the pan.
Diced potatoes
Turn golden brown in fat, adding a crisp, browned texture beside the soft cod.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt cod. Salt cod is heavily cured, so soaking it for several hours or overnight draws out excess salt. Skipping or shortening this step leaves the fish too salty to eat well.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, potato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, potato. 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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