Skip to main content
Main

Cod Sounds, Ragout

A cod ragout made by simmering cod sounds, broiling them, and stewing in white gravy with cream, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,557 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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 sounds

  1. Clean the cod sounds thoroughly without soaking them.

  2. Simmer the sounds for a short time.

  3. Dust the sounds with flour.

  4. Broil the sounds.

Make the gravy

  1. Once tender, stew the sounds in well-seasoned white gravy.

  2. Add cream, butter, and 2 teaspoons of flour to the gravy; bring to a boil.

  3. Flavor the gravy with nutmeg, lemon peel, and a pinch of pounded mace.

Bake and serve

  1. Place three slices of cod in a baking dish.

  2. Cover the cod with good stock and a little essence of anchovies.

  3. Thicken the stock.

  4. Strain the stock.

  5. Pour the strained stock over the fish.

  6. Season the dish with cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and lemon juice.

  7. If desired, add capers.

  8. For maitre d'hotel, add cream and finely chopped parsley.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 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

Cod sounds
Provide the flaky white fish that forms the body of the ragout.
White gravy
Carries the seasoning and gives the fish a smooth, coating sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the flavor of the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps it cling to the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Broil the sounds after dusting. Flour coating needs enough direct heat to brown and set the surface, while the fish must stay tender enough to stew later without falling apart.

Flavor stand-ins for the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, butter, nutmeg, lemon, mace, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, butter, nutmeg, lemon, mace, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Lemon SauceIllustrationLemon Sauce236 recipesIllustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipesIllustration of Mutton BrothIllustrationMutton Broth292 recipes