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Boiled Cod

Boiled Cod is a simple fish dish prepared by simmering cod in salted water and served with parsley and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boiled Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the fish or a piece of it in cold water for 1 hour and wash it.

  2. Place the fish in a fish kettle and cover it with cold water, adding plenty of salt.

Cook

  1. Bring the water to a boil quickly.

  2. Skim off any foam that forms.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer until the fish is cooked through.

Serve

  1. Drain the fish and place it on a hot napkin.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

  3. Serve with melted butter or oyster sauce in a sauce boat.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks in simmering water.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that complements the mild, delicate flavour of the poached fish.

The step that matters

Bring the water to a boil quickly, then reduce to a simmer. A rolling boil can toughen and break up the delicate fish flesh, while a gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps it moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter. 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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