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Fried Cod and Oysters

Fried cod slices and oysters served with butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fried Cod and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Cut the cod into ¾-inch thick slices.

  2. Rub each slice with vinegar and salt.

  3. Let the slices sit for 2 hours.

  4. Wipe the cod dry.

  5. Dredge the cod slices with baked flour.

Fry the cod

  1. Fry the cod in butter over low heat for 18-20 minutes.

Make the oysters

  1. Make a batter with milk, baked flour, and egg.

  2. Beat the batter well.

  3. Wipe the oysters.

  4. Add the oysters to the batter.

  5. Fry the oysters in butter for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the oysters around the cod, pouring the butter over them.

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. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + shallottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Cod
Forms the main flesh of the dish, cooked gently in butter until flaky.
Baked flour
Dredging coat and batter base that helps the surface brown and crisp when fried.
Egg
Binds the batter so it clings to the oysters during frying.
Milk
Liquid in the batter that helps form a smooth coating.
Oysters
Main shellfish, coated in batter and fried until the coating sets.
Butter
Frying fat that carries heat to the fish and adds browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the cod over low heat. Cod is lean and delicate, so gentle heat cooks it through evenly and keeps it moist. Too much heat can dry the outside before the centre is done, and the floured coating can scorch in the butter.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, flour, butter, milk, egg, oyster, lemon):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, flour, butter, milk, egg, oyster, lemon. 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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