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Steamed Cod Roll

A steamed roll of minced cod mixed with milk, breadcrumbs, onions, eggs, and seasonings, served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper 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: egg, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: shrimp, oyster

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Mince and pound the codfish to a paste.

  2. Boil the milk, add the onion, and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Remove the onion and stir in the breadcrumbs.

  4. Combine the breadcrumb mixture with the fish and egg yolks.

  5. Add the seasonings. Mix thoroughly.

Shape and steam

  1. Form the mixture into a roll on greased paper.

  2. Cover the roll. Tie it up in a cloth.

  3. Steam for 40 minutes.

Serve

  1. Turn it out onto a warm dish.

  2. Pour over shrimp or oyster sauce.

  3. Serve garnished with parsley and lemon.

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. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Anchovy + eggtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the roll, giving it a firm, flaky structure once steamed.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness and a tender set when cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the milk and bulk out the fish, helping the roll hold together with a soft texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the breadcrumb and fish mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Steam for 40 minutes. Steaming gently cooks the egg-bound fish mixture so it sets firm without drying or becoming rubbery. The cloth must be wrapped snugly so the roll keeps its shape.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, lemon, butter, pepper, anchovy, nutmeg, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, butter, pepper, anchovy, nutmeg, egg. 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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