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Cod, Scalloped

A baked cod dish with breadcrumb and Parmesan topping, flavored with sherry, anchovy, lemon, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Cod, Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fish into neat pieces and cook in stock until just covered and done.

  2. Strain the stock, add Bovril to make it pale brown, thicken with a small amount of brown roux, and bring to a boil.

  3. Mix the cooked fish with sherry, anchovy, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a fireproof dish and sprinkle with bread crumbs, then fill with the fish mixture and cover with more crumbs.

  2. Dredge the top with grated Parmesan and dot with small pieces of butter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

  4. Garnish with parsley or a few shrimps 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 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

Cod
Forms the flaky body of the dish, set and held together by the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the top and sides when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Bovril
Deepens the savory, meaty flavor of the stock and colors the sauce pale brown.
Grated parmesan
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Bringing the stock to a boil after thickening. Roux thickens only when it is heated enough for the starch to swell, so the sauce must reach a boil to become smooth and hold its body around the fish.

“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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