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Escalloped Finnan Haddie

A baked dish of flaked Finnan haddie and minced eggs topped with a cream sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Escalloped Finnan Haddie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a cream sauce by melting the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in flour, then add the milk and bring to a boil.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the flaked Finnan haddie and minced eggs until all are used.

  2. Pour the cream sauce over the layers and cover with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and the crumbs are browned.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Finnan haddie
Provides the main flaked fish flavor and the body of the dish.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the layers and add richness.
Milk
Forms the sauce base and keeps the layers moist as they heat.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the sauce and helps it come together smoothly.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that browns in the oven and adds a crisp texture.

The step that matters

Bringing the cream sauce to a boil. Flour cooked in melted butter and whisked into milk thickens into a smooth sauce. If the milk is added too fast or not stirred, lumps form and the sauce can scorch on the bottom of the pan.

“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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