Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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)
Directions
Prepare the cod
Wash the cod's head and clean it thoroughly.
Let it sit in coarse sea salt overnight.
Skin the cod's head.
Bind it with tape to keep it firm.
Poach
Place it in a fish kettle, back upwards, with plenty of cold water, a handful of salt, and a little vinegar.
Heat slowly and boil for about 30 minutes.
Drain it across the top of the kettle.
Place it back upwards on a serving dish.
Carefully remove the tape.
Glaze and serve
Brush the cod with beaten egg.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs, pepper, and salt.
Dot with pieces of butter.
Place it before a clear fire or in the oven to brown.
Pour the seasoned oyster sauce around the fish, but not over it.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,145 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + oystertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,544 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + oystertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Oyster + buttertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,175 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Bread + eggtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned 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 head and shoulders
- Provides the main body of the dish, holding its shape through poaching and serving.
- Egg
- Beaten egg brushed on sets during browning and helps the crumbs adhere to the surface.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the fish when heated.
- Butter
- Dotted over the crumbs, it adds richness and helps the top brown.
- Oyster sauce
- Seasons the sauce served around the fish, adding salty, savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Heating the cod slowly before boiling. Bringing the water up gently keeps the delicate flesh from breaking apart, so the head stays intact for serving.
“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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