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Dessert

Salt Cod Rechauffe

A casserole of salt cod topped with mashed potatoes and egg sauce, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Salt Cod Rechauffe

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Remove the bones and skin from the salt cod and place the flesh in a pie dish.

Assemble

  1. Pour the leftover egg sauce over the cod and season lightly with coarse sea salt.

  2. Mash a few potatoes with milk or butter.

  3. Arrange the mashed potatoes around the edge of the fish.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are golden brown.

  2. If no egg sauce is available, melt fresh butter to moisten the fish.

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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sauce + milktop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod
Forms the main body of the dish, providing savoury, flaky fish flavour.
Egg sauce
Adds richness and moisture so the fish does not dry out in the oven.
Potatoes
Mashed around the edge, they brown on the surface and add a soft, starchy texture.
Milk or butter
Enriches the mashed potatoes with fat and moisture for a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Arrange the mashed potatoes around the edge of the fish. Covering the fish edges with mashed potato helps shield the flesh from direct heat, while the exposed potato browns. Spreading it evenly keeps the dish moist and golden.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sauce, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sauce, milk. 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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