Name: Baked Cod Steak
Ingredients: 1 cod steak; Coarse sea salt; Lemon juice; Brown breadcrumbs; 1 slice of bacon; 1 teaspoon MARMITE; Fish liquor from baked fish; Hot water or stock

Why it works: Lemon and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,889 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Baked Cod Steak

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a baking tin.
Wipe the cod steak with a clean cloth and place it in the tin.

Bake

Season with a pinch of coarse sea salt and a few drops of lemon juice.
Sprinkle brown breadcrumbs over the cod steak and place a slice of bacon on top.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Make the gravy and serve

Mix MARMITE with the fish liquor and add a little hot water or stock.
Serve the fish hot, pouring the gravy around it.

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.

Lemon + fishtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,889 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod steak: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently to flake when done.
Brown breadcrumbs: Form a crisp, browned crust on top of the fish as it bakes.
Bacon: Melts fat over the fish, adding savoury flavour and moisture while it bakes.
Marmite: Adds deep savoury, salty flavour to the gravy.
Fish liquor: Carries cooked fish flavour into the gravy, adding body and taste.

“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.