Name: How to Clean Salt-fish
Ingredients: salt-fish (ling or cod); water; coarse salt; vinegar; milk

Why it works: Fish and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,432 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

How to Clean Salt-fish

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the salt-fish fully immersed in water for at least 12 hours.
Scrub the fish with a hard brush or coarse cloth.
Drain the fish on a flat stone or board for 6 to 8 hours.
Soak the fish in lukewarm water for 10 to 12 hours until pliant and tender.
For better flavor, add a little milk and vinegar to the soaking water.

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.

Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Fish + vinegartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,036 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
Vinegar + milktop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,949 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).