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Codfish — Maitre D’ Hotel

Fried codfish pieces served with a lemon butter parsley dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: fish

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the codfish and cut each slice into two pieces.

  2. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then dust with flour.

  3. Dip the pieces in beaten eggs and coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the fish in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and mix in lemon juice, parsley, and nutmeg.

  3. Spread the dressing over the fried fish and serve hot.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into flaky, moist pieces.
Eggs
Bind the flour and cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating holds during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the lemon dressing, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and the fried coating.

The step that matters

Fry the fish in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coated fish absorbs more oil and turns greasy and soggy instead of crisp. Hot fat sets the coating quickly, sealing in moisture so the fish stays tender.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, egg, butter, lemon, parsley):

  1. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, egg, butter, lemon, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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