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Cod, Head and Shoulders Boiled

Boiled cod fish with head and shoulders, served with lemon and parsley.

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 ↓

Cod, Head and Shoulders Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crimp the fish and make deep cuts to the bone on both sides.

  2. Soak the fish in a mixture of vinegar and water for 30 minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. Plunge the fish into boiling water and simmer until just tender.

  2. Drain the fish and serve on a white cloth, garnished with lemon and 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. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  4. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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, cooking to a moist, flaky texture.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Simmer until just tender. Fish protein sets as it heats and becomes dry and tough if overcooked. Removing it once it is just tender keeps the flesh moist and flaky.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, vinegar, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, 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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