Name: Salt Codfish Omelet
Ingredients: 1 piece of salt codfish (about 6 inches square); 6 crackers; 3 eggs; 1 piece of butter (size of an egg); Salt; Pepper; 1 quart of milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salt Codfish Omelet

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the salt codfish overnight.
Split the crackers and soak them in cold water to cover.
Break the fish into small pieces in the morning.

Bake

Mix the fish with the soaked crackers, beaten eggs, butter, salt, and pepper.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and add the milk.
Bake for 20 minutes.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish: Provides the main savory flavor and the substance of the dish.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set on baking, giving the omelet its structure.
Crackers: Soak up liquid and add body, helping the mixture hold together.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the custard-like texture as it bakes.

“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.