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Barrelled Cod Fish

A preserved cod fish cured in a barrel with salt and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and fish work together. They rank in the top 42% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 207 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Barrelled Cod Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the salt and sugar thoroughly.

  2. Split the fish and wash them well.

  3. Let the water drain from the fish.

Cure in the barrel

  1. Strew the mixed salt and sugar over the fish.

  2. Pack the fish into the barrel with the skin side down.

  3. Place the last fish skin side up.

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. Sugar + fishtop 42% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together207 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and seasons it through, firming the flesh as it cures.
Sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cured flesh.
Cod
The main protein that is cured; splitting it exposes more surface to the salt mixture.

The step that matters

Strew the mixed salt and sugar over the fish. The cure must coat every exposed surface evenly. Salt pulls water out by osmosis and dissolves into the remaining moisture, so uneven coverage leaves some areas too salty or under-cured and others too soft.

“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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