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Fried Cod

A fried cod dish with flour, egg, breadcrumbs, oil, parsley garnish, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fried Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cod into slices about ½ inch thick and wipe them dry.

  2. Dip each slice in flour, then brush with beaten egg, and coat with breadcrumbs.

  3. Heat oil in a deep pan until smoking hot.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cod slices until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

  2. Garnish with parsley and serve with a boat of anchovy sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 through to a flaky interior.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the breadcrumbs adhere to the fish.
Fresh soft breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Flour
Dries the surface of the fish so the egg and crumbs stick evenly.

The step that matters

Fry the cod slices until golden brown. Oil must be smoking hot before the fish goes in. Hot oil sets the breadcrumb coating quickly, so it crisps rather than absorbing grease and turning soggy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Jalapenofits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, anchovy, 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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