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Cod, Hashed

A baked cod hash with butter, flour, milk, shrimp, mashed potatoes, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cod, Hashed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Blend butter and flour in a stewpan, frying for a few minutes without browning.

  2. Add milk and stir until it boils.

Combine and serve

  1. Flake cod into small pieces and add it with the shrimps.

  2. Cook until everything is thoroughly hot, then season with pepper and salt to taste.

  3. On a hot dish, create a deep border with mashed potatoes.

  4. Pour the hash into the center and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor while being cooked with flour without browning.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it comes to a boil.
Cod
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the hash.

The step that matters

Bringing the sauce to a boil while stirring. Flour thickens milk only when it boils and is stirred, so the starch gelatinizes evenly. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce, and stirring too little can cause lumps to form.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, shrimp, pepper, potato):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, shrimp, pepper, potato. 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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