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Brandade De Morue

A cod stew with tomatoes, onions, shallots, potatoes, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brandade De Morue

Ingredients

Directions

Make the roux and tomato base

  1. Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan, then stir in flour until slightly browned.

  2. Add the heated stewed tomatoes and stir until smooth; set aside.

Build the stew

  1. In the same pan, sauté the chopped onion and shallots (or garlic) in butter until softened.

  2. Add the strained tomato pulp to the pan and mix well.

  3. Stir in the potato pieces, cover, and stew until the potatoes begin to break down.

  4. Boil the soaked cod in plain water until nearly half cooked, then drain.

  5. Add the cod to the stew one hour before serving and cook carefully to avoid scorching.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 once cooked into the stew.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the stew body.
Stewed tomatoes
Supply acidity and liquid that form the base of the stew.
Potatoes
Break down during stewing to thicken the broth and add starch.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in butter.

The step that matters

Add the cod and cook carefully. Once the cod goes in, the stew can scorch on the bottom of the pan and turn bitter. Gentle heat and stirring keep the stew smooth and the fish tender rather than broken or burnt.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, onion, shallot, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, onion, shallot, potato. 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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