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Cod Au Blanc

Cod fillets salted, boiled, then served with a butter, flour, pepper, cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cod Au Blanc

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the cod

  1. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the cod.

  2. Let the cod sit for 1-2 days.

Poach the cod

  1. Place the cod in a fish kettle filled with cold water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Cover the kettle.

  4. Let the water sit for 10-15 minutes.

  5. Drain the cod.

  6. Set the cod aside.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour and pepper.

  3. Add the cream and mix until smooth.

  4. Serve the hot cod on a dish.

  5. Pour the sauce over the cod.

  6. Warm the fish in the sauce before serving.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 main body of the dish, flaking into tender pieces when cooked.
Butter
Carries flavour and enriches the sauce while it is melted with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, pourable white sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving the sauce its smooth, mellow texture.

The step that matters

Add the cream and mix until smooth. Cream added to a hot butter and flour roux can clump if whisked poorly. Stirring steadily and adding it gradually lets the starch swell evenly, producing a smooth sauce rather than lumps.

“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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