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Cod's Roe Croutes

Grilled cod steak served with a thickened egg yolk and caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cod's Roe Croutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Brush each slice of cod steak with salad oil and season with salt and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. In a small bowl, whisk the yolks of eggs until thick.

  2. Gradually add salad oil, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is very thick like cream.

  3. Cut the capers in half and mix them with a few drops of vinegar into the sauce.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the cod steaks over a clear fire for 20 to 25 minutes.

  2. Serve the grilled cod hot with the sauce on the side.

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 + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + caperstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 steaks
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture over the fire.
Yolks of eggs
Emulsifier that holds the oil and vinegar together, giving the sauce its thick, creamy body.
Salad oil
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps keep the fish moist while it grills.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the rich egg and oil sauce and balances its richness.
Capers
Add a briny, sharp flavour that contrasts with the rich, creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oil to the yolks. Oil must be added slowly, a few drops at a time, so the egg yolk lecithin can emulsify it. Adding it too fast breaks the sauce into separate oil and liquid.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, vinegar. 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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