Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Cod, Curried
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Wash and dry the cod, then cut it into 1 ½‑inch square pieces.
Melt the butter in a stewpan and lightly fry the cod, then remove and set aside.
Make the sauce
Add the sliced onion, flour, and curry powder to the butter in the stewpan, and fry for 15 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent browning.
Pour in the stock, stir until it boils, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Strain the mixture and return it to the saucepan, then add lemon juice and season to taste.
Combine and absorb
Bring nearly to boiling point, then add the fish, cover closely, and set aside for about 30 minutes to allow the fish to absorb the sauce flavor.
Stir occasionally to prevent the fish from sticking to the bottom of the stewpan.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cod
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender as it absorbs the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the curry flavor and gives the sauce richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and onion.
- Curry powder
- Provides the main spiced aroma and flavor of the sauce.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and body to the sauce as it fries and softens.
The step that matters
Frying the onion, flour and curry powder. Stirring constantly keeps the flour and curry powder from scorching, which would make the sauce bitter. Cooking them in fat for the full time also toasts the spices and removes the raw flour taste before the stock is added.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, pepper, lemon):
- Shallotfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, pepper, lemon. 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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