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Stewed Cod's Head and Shoulders

A stew of cod head and shoulders simmered in ale, butter, anchovy essence, lemon pickle, beef gravy, onions, oysters, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Cod's Head and Shoulders

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the cod until nearly cooked, then remove it from the pot.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a stewpan, combine the ale, butter, essence of anchovy, lemon pickle, beef gravy, onions, oysters, white pepper, and salt.

  2. Add the cod to the stewpan and let it simmer until fully cooked.

  3. Strain the sauce over the cod before serving.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Anchovy + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong ale
Adds a bitter, malty depth that flavours the sauce as it reduces.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky body to the sauce.
Beef gravy
Provides savoury body and a meaty backbone to the sauce.
Onions
Release sweetness and aromatic flavour as they soften in the liquid.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour to the sauce.
Essence of anchovy
Adds concentrated salty, savoury umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the cod in the sauce. Cod is delicate and turns dry and flaky-tough if overcooked, so it should simmer gently until just cooked through rather than boil hard.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, anchovy, lemon, beef, onion, oyster):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, anchovy, lemon, beef, onion, oyster. 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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