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Salt Fish Omelette

A savory omelette made with salt cod, milk, flour, butter, eggs, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Fish Omelette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt codfish until the salt is removed.

  2. Shred the soaked codfish into small pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk in a skillet until hot.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the flour with a little cold milk.

  3. Stir the flour mixture into the hot milk.

  4. Stir the mixture constantly until smooth.

  5. Add the butter to the milk mixture.

  6. Stir until well combined.

Finish the omelette

  1. Add the drained fish to the mixture.

  2. Stir well.

  3. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy.

  4. Stir the beaten eggs into the fish mixture along with some pepper.

  5. Remove from heat once thoroughly mixed.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Salt codfish
Provides the main savoury flavour and firm, flaky texture once soaked and shredded.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the flour thickens into a smooth sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the hot milk, giving the mixture body and a smooth consistency.
Eggs
Set when mixed in, binding the fish and sauce into a cohesive omelette.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the flour mixture into the hot milk and keep stirring until smooth. Starch in flour must be dispersed and heated to thicken evenly; adding it without a smooth pre-mix or stopping stirring can leave lumps and an uneven texture.

“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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