Skip to main content
Main

Cullen Skink

A Scottish soup made with smoked haddock, potatoes, milk, and butter.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Haddock and potato work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 171 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Poach the haddock

  1. Cover the haddock with water in a shallow pan with skin side down.

  2. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, turning once.

  3. Take the fish from the pan and remove the skin and bones.

  4. Flake the fish and return to the stock.

  5. Add chopped onion, bay leaf, salt and pepper.

  6. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.

  7. Strain the stock and keep it ready.

  8. Discard the bay leaf and keep the fish warm.

Make the soup

  1. Add the milk to the fish stock and bring to the boil.

  2. Add mashed potato to make a rich and thick soup.

  3. Add the fish.

  4. Check the seasoning and add more if needed.

Serve

  1. When serving, add the butter in small pieces so it runs through the soup.

  2. Serve with chopped parsley on top.

  3. Toast by the side.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Haddock + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  5. Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked haddock
Provides the main flavour and flaky texture of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the broth.
Mashed potato
Thickens the soup, giving it a rich, heavy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Adding the mashed potato. Potato thickens the soup as it is stirred in. Added to a boiling liquid without stirring or with lumps, it can clump or scorch on the base, so add it gradually and keep the soup moving.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, milk, butter, potato, pepper, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Potato CroquettesIllustrationPotato Croquettes255 recipesIllustration of Potato RollsIllustrationPotato Rolls78 recipesIllustration of Potato ChipsIllustrationPotato Chips53 recipesIllustration of Sweet Potato CroquettesIllustrationSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes