Skip to main content
Main

Cod Steaks

Broiled cod steaks served with a creamy caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Capers and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cod Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and dry the fish.

Broil and make the sauce

  1. Grease a grill and broil the steaks until thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, break the yolks of the eggs and add enough oil to make a thick cream.

  3. Mix in a little vinegar, chopped capers, and season with pepper and salt. Stir well and pour the sauce over the fish.

Serve

  1. Garnish with lemon and parsley before serving.

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. Capers + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Fish + caperstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Capers + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by broiling.
Eggs
Egg yolks emulsify with oil to form a thick, creamy sauce.
Oil
Combines with the egg yolks to give the sauce its rich, thick body.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny flavour that balances the rich sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts its richness.

The step that matters

Broil until thoroughly cooked. Fish is done when it turns opaque and flakes easily. Broiling too briefly leaves the centre underdone, while overcooking dries the flesh. Check the thickest part of the steak.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, vinegar, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes