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Fisil Cod's Head

A roasted cod head served with a sauce of butter, anchovy, egg yolks, wine, lemon, and seafood.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,557 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Score the cod's head with a knife and sprinkle coarse sea salt on it.

  2. Place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven or in a stewpan before the fire, reflecting heat with something behind it.

  3. Drain off any water for the first 30 minutes.

  4. Sprinkle nutmeg, cloves, mace, and salt over the fish.

Roast the head

  1. Dust with flour and baste with butter.

  2. After some time, turn the fish, season, and baste the other side frequently, adding bread crumbs.

  3. Cook for 4 to 5 hours for a large head.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt butter with an anchovy and the boiled liver of the fish, mixing well.

  2. Add 2 beaten egg yolks, then strain the mixture.

  3. Return to the saucepan, adding shrimps or pickled cockles, red wine, and lemon juice.

  4. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, then combine with the roasted head.

  5. Stir until it boils, then serve the head on a large dish with the sauce in a separate bowl.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + macetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + macetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Butter + shrimptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Anchovy + shrimptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together432 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod's head
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking slowly to become tender and moist.
Butter
Carries flavour and adds richness, helping the surface brown while basting.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Flour
Dusted on the fish, it helps form a browned, slightly crisp surface.
Anchovy
Adds deep savoury flavour to the butter sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce as it comes to the boil. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if overheated. Stirring constantly and removing the pan from strong heat keeps the sauce smooth.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, mace, flour, butter, egg, anchovy, shrimp):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Allspiceabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, mace, flour, butter, egg, anchovy, shrimp. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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