Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Broiled Salt Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Cut a square from the thickest part of the salt fish.
Cover it with boiling water and soak in a warm room overnight.
Pour off the water.
If the fish isn't freshened enough, add more hot water.
Set the fish on the back of the stove for 10 minutes.
Broil and serve
Wipe the fish dry and broil over a clear fire.
Butter the fish when done and serve hot.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Thick part of salt fish
- Forms the main body of the dish; soaking draws out salt so it can be eaten.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the cooked fish, finishing its flavour.
The step that matters
Soaking the salt fish overnight. Salt fish is heavily salted, so soaking in water draws salt out of it. Too little soaking leaves the fish overly salty, and the record allows adding hot water if it is not freshened enough.
“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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