Why it works: Cream and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,532 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓
Fried Salt Cod
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Soak the salt cod in plenty of water overnight.
Peel off the skin and wipe the fish dry.
Fry and make the sauce
Fry the fish in hot fresh lard until delicately browned.
Remove the fish as soon as browned.
In the same pan, pour in the cream and thicken with corn starch.
Add salt to taste.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the fish on a platter and serve.
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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Cream + corntop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Salt cod
- Its salt-cured flesh is the main ingredient, softened by soaking before frying.
- Fresh lard
- Hot fat fries the fish surface, driving browning and a crisp exterior.
- Cream
- Forms the richly fatty base of the sauce, giving it body and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Corn starch
- Swells with heat in the cream, thickening the sauce to a coating consistency.
The step that matters
Remove the fish as soon as browned. Fish keeps cooking from residual heat in the hot pan, so leaving it in past browning can dry out the flesh and toughen it.
“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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