Name: Salt Cod
Ingredients: 1 piece of salt cod; water for soaking; egg sauce (optional); 2 parsnips; butter; cream or milk

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Salt Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

Soak the salt cod in water overnight.
Boil the cod for one hour.
Place the cod in a dish and separate it into flakes.

Make the parsnips

To make mashed parsnips, boil them until tender, then mash with butter and cream or milk.

Serve

Pour egg sauce over the cod or serve with mashed parsnips.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce + parsniptop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together156 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Salt cod: Soaking draws out salt, and boiling makes the cod tender enough to flake.
Parsnips: Boiled and mashed, they give a soft, sweet base for the fish.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth texture to the mashed parsnips.
Cream or milk: Adds moisture and creaminess to the mashed parsnips.