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To Dress a Cod S Head and Shoulders

A cod head and shoulders baked with egg yolk, breadcrumbs, butter, and a lobster and oyster gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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. Wash the cod's head and shoulders well and cut off the fins.

  2. Place the cod on a dish.

  3. Pour boiling water over part of the fish to scrape off the black scales without breaking the skin. Repeat until the fish looks white.

  4. Wash the fish in cold water.

  5. Boil the fish in salted water for 15 minutes.

  6. Place the fish on a dish.

Top and bake

  1. Rub the fish with the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Cover the fish with breadcrumbs mixed with pepper and minced parsley.

  3. Dot the fish with small pieces of butter.

  4. Place the fish in a 400°F (200°C) oven to brown.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In a saucepan, mix ¼ cup flour with ½ cup butter.

  2. Add 4 cups gravy, 1 cup white wine, pepper, salt, and nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. Mince the lobster meat.

  4. Slightly brown the oysters in a frying pan.

  5. Add the oysters and their liquor to the gravy along with the lobster. Heat the mixture up.

  6. Pour the gravy around the fish. Garnish with cut lemon.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Beaten yolks brushed on the fish help the breadcrumb coating adhere and brown in the oven.
Butter
Melted into the flour to form a roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Flour
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy, balancing its richness.
Oysters
Briefly browned and added to the gravy, contributing briny flavour and tender texture.
Lobster meat
Adds sweet, delicate seafood flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Pouring boiling water over the fish to remove scales. Pouring water over only part of the fish and repeating until it looks white helps loosen scales without tearing the skin, which keeps the fish intact for baking.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, pepper, parsley, butter, flour, white wine):

  1. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, pepper, parsley, butter, flour, white wine. 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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