Why it works: Sherry and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fillet of Cod a LA Normande
Ingredients
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the cod slices in a well-buttered baking tin.
Bake and serve
Add sherry and Espagnole sauce, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Cover the fish with oiled paper and bake for 15 minutes, basting every 5 minutes.
Remove the paper and pour sauce à la Normande over the fish.
Return to the oven for 5 minutes and serve in the baking tin.
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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Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,097 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
- Crimped cod
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until it flakes.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aroma that season the fish as it bakes.
- Espagnole sauce
- Adds body and depth of savoury flavour to the cooking liquid.
- Sauce à la normande
- Adds a rich, creamy coating that moistens the fish and finishes it.
The step that matters
Basting during the covered bake. Basting every 5 minutes under the oiled paper keeps the fish moist and carries flavour from the liquid over the surface, helping prevent the thin slices from drying out before the sauce goes on.
“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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