Name: Salt Cod, a LA Creme
Ingredients: 1 lb salted cod; 2 oz butter; 1 cup milk or cream; coarse sea salt to taste; bread crumbs

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

Soak the salted cod in water for 24 hours, changing the water several times.
Boil the cod in the last water until cooked.
Remove the skin and bones from the cod.
Melt the butter in a saucepan without letting it brown.
Sprinkle salt over the melted butter.
Gradually mix in the milk or cream, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Add the pieces of cod to the sauce and let it simmer uncovered until thick.
Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe dish.
Cover the fish with a thick layer of bread crumbs.
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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).