Name: Boiled Salt Cod with Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients: 1 pound salt cod; 2 cups mashed potatoes; 1 can peas; 1 small head cabbage; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 tablespoon olive oil; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Salt Cod with Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

Soak the salt cod in water overnight to remove excess salt.
Boil the cod in fresh water for about 20 minutes until cooked through.

Prepare the sides

Prepare mashed potatoes by boiling potatoes until tender, then mashing with butter and milk.
Steam or boil the peas until tender.
Shred the cabbage and toss with vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Serve

Serve the boiled cod with mashed potatoes, peas, and cabbage salad.

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.

Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + olivetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,458 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Peas + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,066 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).
Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,016 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together275 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod: Provides the main protein; soaking removes excess salt before boiling.
Olive oil: Adds fat and richness to the cabbage salad, carrying flavor across the leaves.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the cabbage salad and balances the salty fish.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt cod. Salt cod is preserved heavily in salt. Soaking it long enough draws out excess salt, so the fish tastes savory rather than harshly salty once cooked.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cabbage, vinegar, olive, pepper):

Beansfits better
Sesamefits better
Chickpeafits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cabbage, vinegar, olive, pepper. 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.

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Green Peas229 recipes

Potato Rolls78 recipes

Red Cabbage65 recipes

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Boiled Salt Cod with Mashed Potatoes