Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the fish
Rub salt down the bone and shoulder of the cod, and tie with tape.
Place the cod in a fish kettle and cover with cold water, then add vinegar to the water.
Cook
Bring the water to the verge of boiling, then let it simmer gently for 1 hour or more.
Skim the surface well and carefully.
Serve
Drain the cod and slip it onto a folded napkin.
Garnish with parsley, lemon, and the cod's liver.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + livertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Vinegar + parsleytop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,477 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Vinegar + livertop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together345 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Vinegar + lemontop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together7,331 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, cooked gently in simmering water until flaky.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fish and firms its surface before it is poached.
- Vinegar
- Adds a light acidity to the cooking water.
The step that matters
Simmer gently, do not boil. Keeping the water just below a boil cooks the fish evenly and keeps its flesh tender and intact. A rolling boil can break the cod apart and toughen the outer layers.
“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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