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Salt Codfish and Potatoes

Salt codfish served with boiled potatoes, drawn butter or egg sauce, and optional garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,734 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Salt Codfish and Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt codfish overnight in water.

  2. Drain the water and cover the fish with fresh lukewarm water.

  3. Simmer the fish over low heat for 1.5 to 2 hours until cooked through.

  4. Remove the skin from the fish.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish with drawn butter or egg sauce and whole boiled potatoes.

  2. Each person can mash or cut the potatoes on their own plate.

  3. Optionally, serve with cucumbers in vinegar, pickles, or nasturtiums.

  4. Garnish with hard boiled eggs if desired.

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. Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Potato + cucumbertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Potato + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 protein, which is firm and flaky once desalted and cooked.
Drawn butter or egg sauce
Adds richness and moisture to the mild, salty fish.
Whole boiled potatoes
Provide starchy bulk that soaks up the sauce and balances the salty fish.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt codfish overnight. Salt cod is heavily cured, and insufficient soaking leaves the fish too salty. Soaking draws salt out of the flesh, so the fish seasons gently and cooks to a tender texture.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, vinegar, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, vinegar, egg. 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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