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To Boil Salt Fish

Boiled salt fish served with boiled parsnips and optional chopped eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,487 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Boil Salt Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt fish in a large quantity of cold water overnight.

  2. Expose the fish to air for some time, then soak it again until softened.

  3. Brush the fish clean and wash it thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the fish in a fish kettle with plenty of cold water.

  2. Heat the fish slowly, keeping it just below simmering for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on its weight.

  3. Skim off any scum that forms during cooking.

  4. Serve the fish on a hot napkin, optionally garnished with chopped eggs.

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. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + parsniptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Fish + parsniptop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Egg + parsniptop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt fish
Is the main component; soaking removes salt and softens its firm, cured flesh.
Egg sauce
Adds richness and moisture to the mild, firm fish.

The step that matters

Heating the fish slowly below simmering. Boiling vigorously toughens and breaks up the delicate protein of the fish, making it dry and ragged. Gentle heat near but below simmering cooks it evenly and keeps the flesh moist and intact.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, sauce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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