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Cod Steaks

Broiled cod steaks served with a creamy caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cod Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and dry the cod slices.

  2. Preheat a grill and grease it.

Cook the fish

  1. Broil the cod steaks until thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, break the yolks of the eggs and mix with enough oil to create a thick cream.

  2. Add a little vinegar, chopped capers, and season with pepper and salt. Stir well.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the broiled fish and serve garnished with lemon and parsley.

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. Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Fish + caperstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main protein of the dish, cooking to a flaky, opaque texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify with oil to form the thick, creamy sauce.
Oil
Carries the egg yolks into a stable emulsion and adds richness and moisture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour of the rich sauce.
Capers
Add briny, sharp aroma that balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Emulsifying the sauce. Egg yolks must be combined with oil gradually and whisked or stirred steadily to form a thick, stable cream. Adding oil too fast can cause the sauce to split and separate.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, vinegar, pepper. 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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