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Morue. — Salt Cod.

Salt cod simmered in a creamy sauce of flour, butter, milk, pepper, and lemon or sour grapes, served with optional parsley and green onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Morue. — Salt Cod.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Scale and wash the salt cod, then boil it in river water.

  2. Drain the fish and flake it or leave it whole.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, mix flour, butter, and pepper with milk.

  2. Add sour grapes or lemon juice and thicken the sauce over heat.

Combine and serve

  1. Heat the cod in the sauce before serving.

  2. Optionally, add chopped parsley and green onions.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + grapetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,909 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod
Provides the main protein and flaky texture of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a smooth, cohesive cream sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and smooths the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, adding body and mild sweetness.
Sour grapes or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the salty fish.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce over heat. Flour needs to be cooked with the butter and milk while stirring, otherwise it can clump and leave a raw, pasty taste. Keeping the heat moderate prevents scorching and curdling of the milk.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, pepper, milk, grape, onion):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, milk, grape, onion. 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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