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Fricassee of Cod

A cod fricassee made with cod sounds and roes, butter, onion, flour, fish broth, herbs, egg yolks, parsley, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricassee of Cod

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. Split and scrape the cod sounds and roes, then blanch them.

  2. Wash them clean and cut into square pieces the size of a thumb.

Cook

  1. Melt butter in a stew-pan and sauté the chopped onion.

  2. Add the cod pieces and toss them for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle flour over the fish and moisten with fish-broth.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, sweet herbs, and fine spice, then let it stew gently.

  5. Once cooked, thicken the sauce with egg yolks, chopped parsley, and vinegar or verjuice.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  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 sounds and roes
Provide the main body and rich, delicate texture of the fricassee.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion soften and brown lightly.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce around the fish.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the finished sauce, giving it a smooth, glossy body.
Vinegar or verjuice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but can curdle or scramble if the sauce boils. Add them off the heat or over very low heat, and stir constantly for a smooth, silky sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (roe, butter, flour, fish, pepper, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, butter, flour, fish, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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