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Codfish Toast

A toast topped with a creamy codfish mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Codfish Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Shred the codfish into fine pieces and soak in cold water until fresh.

  2. Drain the fish well and mix in flour, sweet cream, and milk; season with pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring well until it scalds.

  2. Remove from heat and quickly stir in the beaten egg.

Serve

  1. Prepare well-seasoned moist toast and pour the fish mixture over it.

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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 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. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Codfish
Provides the main flavor and body of the dish once shredded and soaked.
Flour
Thickens the milk and cream mixture so it clings to the toast.
Egg
Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in off the heat.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the creamy sauce.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smoother texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg off the heat. Egg proteins set and can curdle if they meet a very hot mixture, so removing it from heat and stirring quickly keeps the sauce smooth and lightly thickened.

“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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