Skip to main content
Main

Salt Cod a LA Creme

Salt Cod à la Crème is a creamy cod dish with butter, milk, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salt Cod a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Soak the salt cod in water for 24 hours, changing the water several times.

  2. Remove the skin and bones from the cod.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan without letting it brown.

  2. Sprinkle salt over the cod.

  3. Gradually mix in the milk or cream, stirring with a wooden spoon.

  4. Add the pieces of cod to the sauce.

  5. Let it simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens.

Assemble and finish

  1. Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe dish.

  2. Top the fish with a thick layer of bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 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

Salt cod
Forms the flaked fish base, its flavour concentrated by soaking out the salt.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and carries flavour into the sauce.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a smooth, creamy texture.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in the milk or cream. Adding liquid slowly while stirring keeps the butter and milk emulsified and smooth. Adding it all at once can cause lumps or separation, leaving the sauce grainy.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes