Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Cod Curried
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Wash and dry the cod.
Cut the cod into pieces about 1½ inches square.
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Lightly fry the cod in the butter.
Remove the cod and set aside.
Make the sauce
Add the sliced onion, flour, and curry powder to the butter in the stewpan.
Fry for about 15 minutes while stirring constantly.
Pour in the stock.
Stir until it boils.
Simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture.
Return it to the saucepan.
Add lemon juice and season to taste.
Bring the sauce nearly to boiling point.
Combine and finish
Add the fish.
Cover closely.
Let it sit for about 30 minutes to absorb the sauce flavor.
Stir occasionally to prevent the fish from sticking to the bottom.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour 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
- Cod
- Forms the flaked main body of the dish, absorbing the curry sauce as it sits.
- Butter
- Carries the curry spices and fries the fish and onion, adding richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter and onion.
- Curry powder
- Provides the main spiced aroma and flavor of the sauce.
- Onion
- Softens as it fries and simmers, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce that the fish absorbs flavor from.
The step that matters
Frying the flour and curry powder in butter. Cooking the flour and spices in fat for a full 15 minutes removes the raw floury taste and blooms the curry flavor. Stirring constantly prevents scorching, which would make the sauce bitter and uneven.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, pepper, lemon):
- Shallotfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, pepper, lemon. 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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