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To Boil Cod Fish

A boiled cod fish seasoned with salt, saltpetre, and served with horse-radish and oyster sauce or melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

To Boil Cod Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the cod fish and clean the inside, especially the backbone.

  2. Place the fish in a large pot and cover it with cold water mixed with the salt and saltpetre.

Cook

  1. Bring the pot to a moderate heat and remove any scum that forms on the surface.

  2. Let the fish boil gently until cooked, about 20 to 30 minutes for medium size or 30 to 45 minutes for large.

Serve

  1. Drain the fish and place it on a hot serving dish, garnished with the liver and roe.

  2. Add tufts of lightly scraped horse-radish around the edge.

  3. Serve with oyster sauce or melted butter.

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. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Fish + horsetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Horse + oystertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + radishtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Provides the main lean flesh, which turns flaky and tender when gently cooked.
Oyster sauce or melted butter
Adds richness and savoury flavour to the mild, lean fish.

The step that matters

Let the fish boil gently. Vigorous boiling agitates and toughens the delicate fish proteins, so it can turn dry and rubbery. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps it moist and flaky.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, horse, oyster):

  1. Cucumberfits about as well
  2. Radishthe original
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Horseradishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, horse, oyster. 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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