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Baked Cod

A baked whole cod stuffed with bread crumb dressing, baked with butter and salt pork, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Baked Cod

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Cod

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dressing and stuff the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Prepare a dressing by mixing bread crumbs, pepper, salt, parsley, onion, butter or salt pork, and milk.

  3. Stuff the cod with the dressing and tie it up.

Bake the fish

  1. Place the fish in a large pan and lay strips of salt pork across it.

  2. Baste the fish with butter and sprinkle with fine bread crumbs.

  3. Add 1 pint of water to the pan.

  4. Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours, basting often.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. To make the gravy, combine flour, butter, and a spoonful or two of ketchup or Worcestershire sauce in a pan.

  2. Add a little water, bring to a boil, and pour over the fish 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so it stays moist inside the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Absorb milk and butter in the dressing and form a crisp, browned crust on top.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown while the fish bakes.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumb dressing so it stays tender rather than dry.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices into a smooth gravy.

The step that matters

Baste often during the long bake. Cod is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Regular basting with butter and pan juices keeps the surface moist and helps it brown while the dense stuffed fish cooks through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, parsley, butter, milk, flour, sauce):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, parsley, butter, milk, flour, sauce. 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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