Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Baked Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and stuff
Cut a large piece from the middle of the cod and carefully remove the skin.
Stuff the fish with the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, roe, bread crumbs, lemon peel, butter, pepper, and salt.
Bind the stuffing with the egg white and sew it in with strong string.
Bake and serve
Bake in a Dutch oven, turning frequently and basting with butter.
Serve with shrimp sauce, plain butter, or oyster sauce.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 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
- Cod
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a moist, flaky texture.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Add richness and a firm, creamy body to the stuffing.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb butter and juices, giving the stuffing bulk and a softer texture.
- Butter
- Adds moisture and richness, and helps the fish brown while it bakes.
- Egg white
- Binds the stuffing so it holds together inside the fish.
The step that matters
Turning and basting during the bake. Lean fish dries out quickly in dry heat. Frequent basting with butter adds moisture and fat to the surface, and turning helps the fish cook evenly and keep its juices.
“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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