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Codfish Hash

A savory dish of boiled codfish, potatoes, and salt pork simmered with milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Codfish Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hash

  1. Fry the salt pork pieces in a pan until browned, then remove half of the pork.

  2. Add the codfish and chopped potatoes to the remaining pork and let it steam for 5 minutes without stirring.

  3. Add the milk and stir thoroughly.

Brown and serve

  1. Place the remaining pork around the edge of the pan and add a little butter on top.

  2. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes until a brown crust forms, then turn it onto a platter and serve.

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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main flaky body and savory flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Bind the fish together and add starchy bulk that helps form a crust.
Salt pork
Adds fat and salty, savory flavor that browns in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture so the hash stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Let the crust form without stirring. Stirring after the initial steam breaks up the potatoes and fish, preventing the even contact with the hot pan needed for a browned crust to develop.

“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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