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Boiled Codfish—salt

A boiled codfish served with egg sauce, sliced cold boiled eggs, and drawn butter or cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Boiled Codfish—salt

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the codfish in lukewarm water overnight or for several hours, changing the water several times.

  2. About one hour before dinner, place the codfish in cold fresh water and set it over the fire.

Cook

  1. Let it come to a boil or just simmer for 15 minutes, but do not let it boil hard.

Serve

  1. Remove the codfish from the water, drain it, and serve with egg sauce or sliced cold boiled eggs on top, with drawn butter or cream gravy poured over.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Codfish
The main protein, which turns firm and flakes into tender pieces when gently simmered.
Butter
Drawn butter adds richness and a smooth, moist coating that carries flavor over the fish.
Eggs
Egg sauce or sliced boiled eggs add richness and a creamy texture alongside the fish.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle simmer, not a hard boil. Vigorous boiling forces the fish proteins to contract and tighten, which toughens the flesh and breaks it into ragged pieces. A gentle simmer cooks it evenly while keeping the flakes intact.

“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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