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The Cremes of Haddock

A steamed haddock cream made with béchamel, double cream, and seasonings, baked in small molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The Cremes of Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fillets from the haddocks.

  2. Scrape the white flesh from the skin.

  3. Pound the flesh in a mortar.

  4. Pass the pounded flesh through a wire sieve into a plate.

Make the mixture

  1. Grease 16 dariole moulds with salad oil or clarified butter.

  2. Mix the pounded haddock with the béchamel sauce in the mortar.

  3. Gradually stir in the double cream until well combined.

  4. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Steam and set

  1. Half fill a dariole mould with the mixture.

  2. Steam the filled moulds in a small saucepan with boiling water for a few minutes.

  3. Check for firmness by pressing the mixture in the mould with your finger.

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. Haddock + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Haddock + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Haddock
Provides the delicate white flesh that forms the body of the cream.
Béchamel sauce
Adds moisture and body, helping the mixture stay smooth and tender.
Double cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the set mousse a soft, silky texture.

The step that matters

Steam until just firm. Fish proteins set with gentle heat; overheating or boiling too hard can cause the mixture to curdle, weep or turn rubbery, so steam gently and test firmness by pressing.

“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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