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Middle Cut of Cod

A cod fillet stuffed with a breadcrumb, parsley, onion mixture, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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: oyster

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 the stuffing

  1. Mix bread crumbs, parsley, onion, pepper, salt, and butter to make a stuffing.

  2. Moisten the stuffing with an egg or milk.

  3. Cook the stuffing slightly.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the mixture into the open part of the cod and secure with skewers.

  2. Rub the fish with a beaten egg.

  3. Sprinkle the fish with additional bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Serve with or without oyster sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + fishtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,661 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Butter + fishtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,432 recipes

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently inside the stuffing as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the stuffing and give it body, with crisp browning on top.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together and, brushed on the fish, helps the topping crumbs brown.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and flavour to the stuffing as it softens slightly with cooking.

The step that matters

Cook the fish until just cooked through. Cod is lean and firms up quickly when overcooked, becoming dry and flaky in a tough way. Because the stuffing sits inside, the cook must judge doneness by the fish itself, not only the stuffing.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, pepper, butter, egg, fish. 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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