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Broiled Salt Codfish

Broiled salt codfish served with drawn butter and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Salt Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Cut the codfish into medium-sized square pieces and split them in two.

  2. Soak the pieces in cold water overnight.

  3. Drain and dry the codfish pieces with a napkin the next morning.

Broil and serve

  1. Rub a little butter over each piece and broil them.

  2. Place the broiled codfish on a platter and pour melted butter over them.

Make the drawn butter

  1. To make drawn butter, divide 3 ounces of butter into small balls and dredge them with flour.

  2. In a saucepan, melt some of the floured butter balls and whisk until smooth.

  3. Add more floured butter balls gradually, whisking until incorporated and smooth.

  4. Stir in 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and, if desired, a little chopped parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Salt-cured fish that is soaked to remove salt and becomes flaky when broiled.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the broiled fish and forms the base of the drawn butter sauce.
Flour
Coats the butter balls so they melt into a smooth, thickened sauce without lumps.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the floured butter balls gradually. Adding flour-coated butter in small amounts while whisking lets it emulsify and thicken smoothly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps in the sauce.

“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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