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Scalloped God

A baked cod dish topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped God

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the flesh from the cold cod, discarding skin and bone.

  2. Season the fish with salt, white pepper, and a pinch of grated nutmeg.

  3. Weigh the fish and use half its weight in fine bread-crumbs, seasoning them with salt and cayenne.

  4. Butter a pie dish and add a layer of crumbs at the bottom.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish on top, dot with small pieces of butter, and cover with more bread-crumbs and additional butter.

  2. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until hot throughout.

  3. Serve immediately in the baking dish.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 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

Cold cod
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky fish layer.
Fine bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and form layers that hold the fish together while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the crumbs brown and keeping the dish moist.

The step that matters

Baking until hot throughout. Cod is delicate and cooks quickly, while the dish is gently baked at a low temperature. Overbaking can dry the fish and toughen its texture, so it should be heated just until hot throughout.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, bread, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, bread, pepper, butter. 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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