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Scalloped Codfish with Cheese

A baked cod dish with a creamy cheese topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Scalloped Codfish with Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the codfish in tepid water for 6 hours, then boil it.

  2. Once cold, flake the fish with a fork and season with pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk to a boil, then stir in the butter rolled in flour.

  2. Mix the milk mixture with the flaked fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and top with grated cheese.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Salted codfish
Provides the main protein and flavour, with flakes that hold together in the baked dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Prepared flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the fish together.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Soaking the codfish. Salted cod must be soaked long enough to remove most of its salt. Too little soaking leaves the fish harshly salty, and the salt cannot be removed by adding anything later.

“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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