Why it works: Milk and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the sounds
Soak salted cod sounds in warm water for several hours.
Wash fresh sounds in warm water and scrape off the dark skin.
Cover the sounds with equal parts of milk and water. Add salt, pepper, and mace.
Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until three-quarters cooked.
Drain the sounds, preserving the cooking liquid.
Cut them into large dice.
Make the sauce
Melt butter in a small saucepan. Stir in flour.
Strain in the reserved liquid, seasoning to taste.
Let the mixture boil gently for 2-3 minutes while stirring.
Add the prepared sounds.
Set aside to cool.
Bake and serve
Line deep patty pans with puff pastry. Fill with the mixture.
Cover with pastry lids.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until thoroughly hot and golden.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pepper + macetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together76,993 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + macetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,346 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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 sounds
- Provide the main filling, becoming tender and flaky when simmered until cooked.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, adding richness to the filling.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and cooking liquid into a binding sauce that holds the filling together.
- Milk
- Forms the cooking liquid that gives the sauce body, softness and a mild sweetness.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind the pastry and filling as the patties set.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp case and lid that brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Let the mixture boil gently while stirring. Flour must cook briefly in the hot liquid to thicken fully and lose its raw taste; stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the pan base.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, butter, flour, egg):
- Nutmegbetter flavor fit
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, butter, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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