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Salt Codfish Souffle

A baked soufflé made with salt codfish, potatoes, onion, eggs, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Codfish Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the codfish and potatoes overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain and cook the potatoes until tender.

  3. Fry the onion in oil until soft, then add to the fish and potatoes.

  4. Mash the mixture thoroughly.

Make the souffle

  1. Add the well-beaten yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  2. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air that lifts and sets the souffle, while yolks add richness and body.
Salt codfish
Supplies the main savory, salty flavour and dense body of the mixture.
Potatoes
Provide starchy bulk and a soft, mashable texture that holds the souffle together.
Oil
Carries the onion's flavour during frying and adds fat to the mixture.
Onion
Softened by frying, it adds sweetness and aroma to the base.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.. Whites hold air bubbles that make the souffle rise. Vigorous stirring deflates them, so the bake comes out dense and flat instead of light.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, egg. 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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