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Codfish Omelette

A baked omelette made with soaked salt codfish, milk, flour, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Codfish Omelette

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the salt codfish in water overnight to cover.

  2. Press the codfish dry and chop it very fine.

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil and stir in the chopped codfish.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with butter until smooth, then stir the mixture into the milk.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until it rises and browns on top.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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 savory flavor and firm, flaky texture of the omelette.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks into a soft, custard-like body.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds together rather than running loose.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the flour blend smoothly, while greasing the dish.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving structure and helping the dish rise and brown.

The step that matters

Pressing the codfish dry. Excess water left in the salted fish would thin the mixture and make the baked dish soggy, so the fish should be well drained before chopping and adding.

“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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