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Cod, Hashed

A creamy cod and shrimp hash served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cod, Hashed

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, blend the butter and flour, frying for a few minutes without coloring.

  2. Add the milk and stir until boiling.

Combine and serve

  1. Flake the cod into small pieces and add it along with the shrimps.

  2. Cook until thoroughly hot, then season carefully.

  3. Make a deep border of mashed potatoes on a hot dish.

  4. Pour the hash into the center and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while the flour cooks into a roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce when cooked with the butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a creamy sauce.
Cod
Provides the flaky main protein that gives the hash its body.
Shrimps
Adds sweet, briny flavour and a little extra texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce without coloring. Frying the butter and flour only briefly keeps the roux pale and mild. Stirring the milk in until boiling lets the flour fully thicken it, so the sauce stays smooth rather than lumpy or tasting of toasted flour.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, shrimp, pepper, potato):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, shrimp, pepper, potato. 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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