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Creamed Finnan Haddie

Smoked haddock simmered in a creamy sauce of milk, butter, corn starch, paprika, and hard‑boiled eggs, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamed Finnan Haddie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haddie

  1. Take a finnan haddie weighing about 2 pounds.

  2. Put the haddie flesh side down in a dripping pan and pour boiling water over it.

  3. Let the haddie stand until cold.

  4. Pick up the haddie (the white part only) and braise it in a chafing dish with 2 tablespoons of butter.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare 3 hard‑boiled eggs and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Make a sauce by whisking 1 pint milk, 1 tablespoon butter, and 2 tablespoons corn starch, then wet the mixture in a little milk.

  3. Season the sauce with a spoon of salt and 3 or 4 dashes of paprika.

  4. Add the sauce to the haddie, and when it boils, add the eggs.

Serve

  1. Optionally add a wine glass of sherry when ready to serve, or sprinkle grated cheese over the dish.

  2. Serve the finished dish on toast.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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 (in the method)
Provides the main flaked fish body and savory flavor of the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that carries the fish and eggs.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Hard boiled eggs
Add soft, rich texture and body to the creamed mixture.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Corn starch must be mixed smoothly with a little cold milk first, then heated, so it thickens evenly without lumps. Starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the sauce should be stirred until it does.

“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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