Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the cod
Salt the slice of cod and let it sit for one day.
Boil the cod the next day, then break it into flakes.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the shallot and parsley.
Add the stock and bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes.
Stir in enough flour to thicken the sauce.
Add more stock if making a cream sauce, and boil for a few minutes.
Mix in anchovy essence, lemon juice, and sugar.
Combine and serve
Add the fish to the sauce and heat gently without boiling.
Serve the fish in the center of a dish.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,036 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Shallot + parsleytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,718 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Shallot + lemontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,484 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Shallot + flourtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,031 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Shallot + anchovytop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together488 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Crimpt cod
- Provides the main protein, which is salted, boiled and flaked into the sauce.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat and carries the flavour of the shallot and parsley.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a smooth, coating sauce.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, boiled down to concentrate its flavour.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the fish.
The step that matters
Add the fish to the sauce and heat gently without boiling. Flaked fish is delicate and can toughen and dry out or break apart when boiled. Gentle heat keeps it tender while it warms through in the sauce.
Flavor stand-ins for the shallot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, flour, anchovy, lemon, sugar):
- Shallotthe original
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, flour, anchovy, lemon, sugar. 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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