Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Baked Codfish
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Soak the salt fish.
Boil the salt fish.
Pick the salt fish as for fish balls.
Make and bake
Mix the fish with an equal quantity of mashed or chopped potatoes, ½ cup of butter, and enough warm milk to make it soft.
Transfer the mixture to a buttered dish.
Rub butter over the top.
Sprinkle with sifted flour.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes until rich brown.
Serve
Prepare a sauce of drawn butter.
Serve with sliced hard-boiled eggs in a gravy boat.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fish + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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 fish
- Provides the main flavour and the flaked body of the dish.
- Potatoes
- Add bulk and a soft, starchy texture that holds the mixture together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown.
- Milk
- Softens the mixture so it stays moist while baking.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add a mild, creamy contrast when served alongside the fish.
The step that matters
Bake until rich brown. The floury, buttered top needs enough time in the oven to brown properly. Underbaking leaves it pale and the mixture wet inside, while the surface browns through the Maillard reaction at high heat.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, milk, flour, egg):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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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