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Slices of Cod a LA Seville

A baked cod dish served over fried rice with tomato and onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,039 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rice and fish

  1. Wash and dry the rice, then fry it in salad oil and drain it on a sieve.

  2. Place the rice in a large pan.

  3. Fry the cod pieces in salad oil until golden, then drain and place them on the rice.

  4. Slice the onion thinly and fry in the oil used for the fish, then drain the oil.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the tomatoes to the onion and simmer for 5 minutes.

  2. Pour the tomato and onion mixture over the fish and rice, season with cayenne, salt, and lemon juice.

Bake

  1. Moisten with broth, cover with buttered paper, and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the cod from the rice and stir the rice over heat to mix in the seasoning.

  2. Serve the rice on a silver dish with the cod on top, and sauce with Muscle sauce.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,990 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,913 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20,622 recipes

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

  5. Rice + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,990 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carolina rice
Absorbs the broth and tomato liquid, becoming tender and forming the base of the dish.
Cod
Provides the main protein; frying first gives golden colour and a firmer surface before baking.
Tomatoes
Add moisture, body, and acidity to the sauce that coats the fish and rice.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the fish oil.
Broth
Supplies liquid that cooks the rice and carries flavour through the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Moisten with broth and cover before baking. The rice must absorb just enough liquid. Covering with buttered paper traps steam so the rice cooks through evenly, while too little broth leaves it dry and too much leaves it soggy.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, tomato, pepper, lemon, butter):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, tomato, pepper, lemon, butter. 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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