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To Stew Cod’s Sounds and Tongues

A creamy stew of cod's sounds and tongues simmered with veal broth, onions, butter, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Stew Cod’s Sounds and Tongues

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the cod's sounds and tongues as directed.

  2. Boil them in milk and water until half-done.

Make the stew

  1. In a pot, combine veal broth, boiled onions, butter, cream, and lemon peel.

  2. Add the sounds and tongues to the pot and let it stew gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Season with nutmeg, cayenne, black pepper, and salt.

  4. Garnish with sliced lemon before serving.

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 + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cod's sounds and tongues
Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender as they simmer in the broth.
Veal broth
Provides the savory liquid base that carries the flavour of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness, and its flour coating helps thicken the stew.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the broth.
Boiled onions
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they break down.

The step that matters

Simmering the cod's sounds and tongues. Simmering gently keeps the delicate fish tender and prevents it from toughening or breaking apart. Boiling hard in the cream-based broth can cause the dairy to curdle and the fish to become rubbery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, veal, butter, flour, cream, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, veal, butter, flour, cream, lemon, nutmeg. 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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