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To Stew Cod

A cod stew with herbs, wine, lemon, oysters, and butter‑flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Stew Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Lay the cod slices in a large stew-pan without stacking them.

  2. Season the cod with nutmeg, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Add the sweet herbs, onion, white wine, and water to the pan.

Stew

  1. Cover and simmer gently for 5–6 minutes.

  2. Squeeze in the lemon juice, add the oysters and strained liquor, and the butter rolled in flour.

  3. Add the mace, cover, and stew gently, shaking the pan often.

Serve

  1. Remove the herbs and onion before serving, and pour the sauce over the cod.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, cooking gently to become flaky and tender.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the cooking liquor into a silky sauce while butter adds richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid, balancing the richness of the sauce.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour that enriches the sauce as they cook.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Simmering the cod gently without stacking. Gentle heat and a single layer let the cod cook evenly and stay tender. Vigorous boiling or crowded pieces can toughen the fish and break it apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, pepper, white wine, lemon, oyster, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, pepper, white wine, lemon, oyster, butter, flour. 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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