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Salted Cod Use

A dish of salted cod mixed with mashed potatoes, cream, butter, cayenne pepper, and chopped boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salted Cod Use

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Wash and soak the salted cod overnight.

  2. Boil the cod in fresh water until cooked but not breaking apart.

  3. Remove all bones from the cod.

Make the mash

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes with a little cream.

  2. Mince the fish and mix it with the mashed potatoes and butter.

  3. Season with cayenne and add more salt if needed.

  4. Chop the boiled eggs and add them to the mixture.

  5. Heat the mixture in a saucepan 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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Salted cod
Provides the main flesh and savoury flavour of the dish.
Boiled potatoes
Form the bulk of the mash and give it a soft, smooth body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the mashed potatoes.
Butter
Adds fat for a silky texture and rich flavour.
Boiled eggs
Add body and a soft, creamy texture when chopped into the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil the cod until cooked but not breaking apart. Overcooking causes the proteins to tighten and the flakes to fall apart into a dry, stringy texture, while undercooking leaves the fish firm. Gentle heat keeps the flesh moist and intact for mincing.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper, 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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