Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Stewed Salt Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cod
Scald the soaked cod by boiling it in water for 10 minutes.
Scrape the cod to remove skin and bones, then flake it.
Stew
In a stew‑pan, combine the flaked cod with butter and flour.
Add enough milk to moisten the mixture.
Let it stew gently for 85 minutes.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Soaked cod
- Provides the main body and flavour of the dish once desalted and flaked.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the stew a smooth mouthfeel.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture as it stews, giving it body and a creamy texture.
- Milk
- Moistens the mixture and makes a creamy, tender stew as it gently cooks.
The step that matters
Let it stew gently for 85 minutes. Gentle heat lets the flour swell and thicken the liquid evenly and softens the fish without toughening its proteins. Boiling hard can break the mixture or make the fish dry and stringy.
“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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