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Boiled Cod Fish

A simple boiled cod fish served with lemon, parsley, and optional fried oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boiled Cod Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the cod fish carefully, removing the vein along the backbone.

  2. Place the fish in a pan and cover it with boiling water.

  3. Add salt and vinegar to the water.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the fish slowly for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on thickness.

  2. Check for doneness; the fish should be white and firm at the bone.

  3. When the skin begins to crack, the fish is ready.

  4. Drain the fish for a few minutes, then serve on a hot napkin.

  5. Garnish with cut lemon, parsley, and fried oysters if desired.

  6. Serve with white or other fish sauce.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  3. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Provides the flesh that turns white and firm as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds a mild acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Cook the fish slowly. Gentle simmering keeps the flesh moist and tender; boiling hard can toughen the proteins and break the fish apart. Checking that it is white and firm at the bone confirms it is cooked through.

“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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