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Scalloped Cod

A baked cod dish served in scallop shells with parsley, anchovy essence, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Cod

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Break the cod into small pieces, removing skin and bone.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then mix in parsley and essence of anchovy.

  3. Moisten with melted butter or stock.

Fill and bake

  1. Butter scallop or oyster shells and cover with bread-crumbs.

  2. Divide the fish mixture among the shells, cover with more bread-crumbs, and dot with butter.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes until hot and browned.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of baked cod
Provides the flaked fish that forms the bulk of the filling.
Melted butter or strong stock
Adds moisture so the fish filling does not dry out in the oven.
Bread-crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that seals in moisture.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the fish filling.

The step that matters

Moistening the fish before filling the shells. Cooked fish dries out quickly in the oven. Adding enough melted butter or stock lets the mixture stay moist while the crumbs brown, so the filling is not dry and crumbly.

“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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