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Stewed Cod or Haddock

A simple oven-baked cod or haddock stewed in stock, thickened with cornflour, seasoned with lemon, pepper, and optional anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Stewed Cod or Haddock

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.

Cook the fish

  1. Place the slice of cod or haddock in a small clean saucepan or frying pan.

  2. Pour in the stock and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Cover with a buttered paper and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes until tender but not broken.

Make the sauce

  1. Transfer the fish to a hot dish and keep warm.

  2. Blend the cornflour with a little milk and strain it into the cooking liquid.

  3. Bring to a boil, stirring well.

  4. If desired, add the anchovy essence and strain the sauce over the fish.

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 + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Haddock + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod or haddock
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender and flaky when gently cooked.
Second stock or milk
Provides the cooking liquid that gently poaches the fish and forms the base of the sauce.
Cornflour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish until tender but not broken. Fish proteins set at fairly low heat and break apart with overcooking, so gentle oven heat and a timed check keep the slice intact while it cooks through.

“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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