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Salt-Cod Boiled, Dutch Fashion

Salt cod boiled with clarified butter, lemon juice, parsley, nutmeg, served with boiled potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Salt-Cod Boiled, Dutch Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt-cod in fresh water for 2-3 days, changing the water several times.

  2. When the fish is supple, scale it and place it in a stewpan.

Cook and dress

  1. Cover with plenty of cold water and set over medium heat.

  2. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer for 12-15 minutes.

  3. Remove the fish with a skimmer and drain on a cloth.

  4. Remove the large bones and place the fish on a dish.

  5. Baste the fish with clarified butter mixed with lemon juice.

  6. Sprinkle the fish with parsley and nutmeg.

  7. Serve the fish with boiled potatoes.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt-cod
Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into moist, tender pieces when cooked.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish and carrying the lemon flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the salty fish.

The step that matters

Simmer, don't boil, for 12-15 minutes. A hard boil toughens and breaks up the fish proteins, while gentle simmering keeps the flesh tender and moist. Salt-cod has been soaked, so it cooks quickly and can overcook.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, parsley, nutmeg. 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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