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Crimped Cod and Oyster Sauce

A dish of sliced crimped cod and liver boiled, served with oyster sauce and parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,233 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crimped Cod and Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cod and liver into slices.

Cook

  1. Place them in a fish kettle and boil for about 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the fish and liver.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin garnished with parsley.

  2. Serve oyster sauce on the side.

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. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Liver + oystertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together179 recipes

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

  3. Liver + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Parsley + oystertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 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

Cod
Forms the main body of the dish, its firm flakes holding their shape when poached.
Liver
Adds richness and a soft, tender texture when gently cooked.
Oyster sauce
Adds savory, salty depth that complements the mild fish.

The step that matters

Boiling the fish. Boiling for too long toughens the proteins in fish and liver, making them dry and rubbery. Stop when the fish flakes easily at its thickest point.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, oyster, sauce. 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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