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To Dress a Cod's Head and Shoulders with a White Sauce

A cod head and shoulders are boiled, glazed, and served with a white sauce made from stock, butter, flour, wine, oysters, lemon, and lobster.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Dress a Cod's Head and Shoulders with a White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Boil veal, onions, and parsley in water until the essence is drawn out.

Prepare and poach the fish

  1. Remove gills from the fish.

  2. Wash the fish clean in cold water.

  3. Pour boiling water over one side of the fish.

  4. Quickly remove the black skin without breaking it.

  5. Turn the fish and repeat on the other side.

  6. In a large pan, boil enough water to cover the fish, adding vinegar and salt.

  7. Place the fish on a drainer, set it in the pan, and boil for 30 minutes, ensuring it is dry before adding.

Dress and bake the fish

  1. Carefully lift the drainer with the fish out.

  2. Glaze the fish with egg yolks.

  3. Sprinkle the fish with bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, and lemon zest.

  4. Dot the fish with pieces of butter.

  5. Place the fish before a clear fire and baste frequently.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the stock for the sauce.

  2. Thicken the strained stock with butter kneaded with flour.

  3. Add white wine, oysters with their liquor, lemon juice, white pepper, salt, and lobster meat.

  4. Boil the sauce for a few minutes.

  5. Skim the sauce well.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Glaze that enriches the surface and helps it brown as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and with flour thickens the sauce.
Cod's head and shoulders
Main protein; its flesh turns firm and flaky when gently poached.
Oysters
Contribute briny flavour and body to the finished sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that absorbs the butter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Boiling the fish in vinegar water. Boiling too hard can break the delicate flesh and skin, while the water must cover the fish evenly so it cooks gently and stays intact. Ensuring the drainer is dry before adding keeps the poaching water at a steady temperature.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, vinegar, egg, lemon, butter, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, vinegar, egg, lemon, butter, white wine. 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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