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Salt Codfish in Puree of Potatoes

A dish of boiled potatoes mashed into a puree, topped with salted codfish simmered in milk and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Codfish in Puree of Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  3. Drain and mash them until light and fine.

  4. Add salt, pepper, 1 tablespoon of butter, and 1 cup of boiling milk.

  5. Beat thoroughly.

  6. Spread a thin layer of mashed potatoes on a hot platter, creating a wall around the edge.

Make the codfish sauce

  1. In a saucepan, boil 1 pint of milk with the onion.

  2. Mix flour and remaining butter.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of hot milk to this mixture.

  4. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk.

  5. Remove the onion.

  6. Add the codfish.

  7. Cook for 10 minutes.

  8. Season with pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour into the center of the potato wall.

  2. Garnish with parsley.

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.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Potatoes
Form the smooth mashed base that holds the fish sauce and gives the dish its body.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the mashed potatoes and forms the body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to both the potato mash and the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Cooked salt codfish
Provides the savory, salty flavor that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk. Flour clumps if added dry or to cool liquid. Blending it with butter and hot milk first and then stirring it into boiling milk lets the starch disperse and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter, pepper, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, pepper, flour. 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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