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Slices of Cod Fish Fried

Slices of cod fish fried in oil, seasoned with salt, pepper or cayenne, flour, egg, crumbs, served with butter and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Slices of Cod Fish Fried

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Slices of Cod Fish Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cod fish into slices nearly 1 inch thick.

  2. Season the slices with coarse sea salt and white pepper or cayenne.

  3. Flour the slices well.

  4. Alternatively, dip the slices in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs mixed with salt and pepper before frying.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the slices in hot oil until they are a clear, even brown on both sides.

  2. Drain the fried slices on a sieve before the fire.

  3. Serve on a well-heated napkin with plenty of crisped parsley around them.

  4. Serve with melted butter and anchovy sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Provides the main flaky white body of the dish.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the slices brown and crisp when fried.
Beaten egg
Binds the fine crumbs to the fish so the coating holds during frying.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished slices.

The step that matters

Fry until clear, even brown on both sides. Oil must be hot enough to brown the flour or crumb coating quickly. If the oil is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy, while the fish cooks slowly and can dry out. Turning the slices so both sides brown evenly gives a crisp crust.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, flour, egg, butter, anchovy, sauce, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, flour, egg, butter, anchovy, sauce, parsley. 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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