Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Codfish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Soak the codfish in cold water with a little salt for 30 minutes.
Wipe the fish dry and wrap it in a clean linen cloth dredged with flour. Sew the cloth edges to fully envelop the fish.
Cook the fish
Boil the fish in water for 1 hour, or until cooked through.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine ½ cup boiling water and ½ cup milk.
Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter gradually until melted.
Add 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with cold water and stir until thickened.
Incorporate 2 beaten eggs and season with salt and chopped parsley.
Boil the sauce once before serving.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter 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
- Codfish
- Forms the main body of the dish, staying moist and flaky when gently boiled.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce by swelling in liquid as it heats.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, giving the sauce body and a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten eggs to the sauce. Eggs can scramble if the sauce is too hot when they go in. Stir them in off the heat or at a gentle heat, then boil only once, so the sauce stays smooth and thickened.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg):
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, 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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