Name: Milk or Cream Codfish
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon salt codfish, finely chopped; ½ cup milk or thin cream; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon flour or cornstarch; a little milk for wetting; 1 slice of bread for toast

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Milk or Cream Codfish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

Freshen the salt codfish by boiling it in cold water, then drain.
If the codfish is very salty, repeat the boiling process.

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, combine the freshened codfish, milk or cream, butter, and pepper.
Mix the flour or cornstarch with a little milk, then add to the saucepan.
Cook until it boils, then serve over a slice of dipped toast.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Salt codfish: Provides the main savoury flavour and the flaky body of the dish.
Milk or thin cream: Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it a creamy texture.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Flour or cornstarch: Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the sauce body.

The step that matters

Cook until it boils after adding the thickener. Flour or cornstarch only thickens fully once the liquid boils, so stopping early leaves the sauce thin. Stir it in smoothly first so it does not clump.

“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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White Bread80 recipes

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Milk or Cream Codfish