Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Stewed Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the cod
Bring salted water to a boil and gently boil the cod slices for 5 minutes.
Remove the fish and let it drain.
Make the sauce and serve
In a wide stewpan, heat the veal gravy or broth.
Add the fish and stew for 5 minutes.
Stir in the bread crumbs and simmer for 3 minutes.
Mix the arrow-root, mace, cayenne, essence of anchovies, white wine, and lemon juice into the sauce.
Boil the mixture for 2 minutes.
Carefully lift out the fish, pour the sauce over it, and serve immediately.
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.
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Fish + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together370 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,329 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cod
- Forms the flaky main body of the dish, which holds its shape when gently poached and stewed.
- Veal gravy or strong broth
- Provides the savoury liquid base that the sauce is built on.
- Bread crumbs
- Thicken the stewing liquid slightly and give the sauce body.
- Arrow-root
- Acts as a thickener, giving the sauce a glossy, smooth texture when boiled.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the savoury stew.
- Essence of anchovies
- Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Boiling the thickened sauce. Arrow-root thickens only when it is heated to boiling and then held there briefly, so the sauce must be boiled for the full time to reach its intended body. Boiling too hard or too long can break the thickened starch and thin it again.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, veal, bread, white wine, lemon):
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, veal, bread, white wine, lemon. 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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