Name: Scolloped Cod
Ingredients: 2 lbs boiled cod; oyster sauce

Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,233 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

2 lbs boiled cod
oyster sauce

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Flake the boiled cod into a baking dish.

Bake and serve

Pour oyster sauce over the cod.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until heated through.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Oyster + saucetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together2,233 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled cod: Forms the main body of the dish, staying moist and flaking as it heats through.
Oyster sauce: Adds savory, salty depth and a glossy coating over the fish as it bakes.

“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.