Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 528 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: fish
Directions
Prepare
Rub coarse sea salt along the bone and thick part of the fish.
Tie the head with broad tape to prevent breaking.
Boil and serve
Place the fish in a pot and cover with cold water.
Add a handful of salt, vinegar, and horseradish to the water.
Heat the water until just boiling and cook for about 1 hour.
Check if the meat separates easily from the backbone to know when it's done.
Garnish and serve.
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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Horse + radishtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together528 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
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Vinegar + radishtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together507 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Vinegar + horsetop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together331 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Codfish
- Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky meat that is cooked through.
- Vinegar
- Adds a sharp acidity to the cooking water that brightens the mild flavour of the fish.
- Horse-radish
- Contributes a pungent, sharp aroma that complements the mild, rich fish.
The step that matters
Checking doneness at the backbone. Cod is done when the flesh separates easily from the backbone. Because the flesh continues to cook from residual heat, overcooking dries it and makes it tough and crumbly, so check early and remove promptly once it flakes readily.
“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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