Name: To Boil Salt Cod, Ling, or Any Other Kind of Salt Fish
Ingredients: Salt cod, ling, or other salt fish; ½ cup vinegar; shredded horseradish

Why it works: Vinegar and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Boil Salt Cod, Ling, or Any Other Kind of Salt Fish

Ingredients

Salt cod, ling, or other salt fish
½ cup vinegar
shredded horseradish

Directions

Soak the fish in water, then drain it.
Place the fish in a pot with cold water.
Add vinegar and shredded horseradish to the water.
Boil the fish slowly until tender.
Serve with egg sauce, mustard, and melted butter.
Garnish with shredded horseradish or boiled parsnips.

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.

Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fish + horseradishtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together178 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,036 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).