Name: Cod Fish with Rice and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 small piece of salt cod fish (boneless preferred); 2 tablespoons butter; 1 sweet green pepper, finely chopped; 1 small onion, minced; 1 cup boiled rice; 4 cans of tomatoes

Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Cod Fish with Rice and Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 small piece of salt cod fish (boneless preferred)
2 tablespoons butter
1 sweet green pepper, finely chopped
1 small onion, minced
1 cup boiled rice
4 cans of tomatoes

Directions

Prepare

Soak the salt cod fish in water, changing the water 3 times.

Assemble and cook

In a stew pan, mix the butter with the chopped green pepper and minced onion.
Place the soaked cod fish over the mixture in the pan.
Cover with boiled rice and pour the canned tomatoes on top.
Simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

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.

Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + oniontop 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

Salt cod fish: Provides the main protein; soaking removes excess salt so the fish becomes mild and tender.
Boiled rice: Forms a starchy layer that absorbs moisture and cooking liquid as the dish simmers.
Canned tomatoes: Supply liquid and acidity that gently cook the rice and fish together into a sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour from the vegetables into the dish.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt cod. Salt cod is heavily salted for preservation. Changing the water several times draws out salt through diffusion, so the fish seasons the dish gently rather than making it overly salty.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, pepper, rice, tomato):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, pepper, rice, tomato. 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Fried Fish120 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

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Cod Fish with Rice and Tomatoes