Skip to main content
Main

Creamed Finnan Haddie

A creamy fish dish made with Finnan haddie, eggs, milk, butter, and optional sherry or cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 fish

  1. Place the Finnan haddie, flesh side down, in a dripping pan and pour boiling water over it.

  2. Let the fish stand until cold.

  3. Remove the white part of the haddie and braise it in a chafing dish with 2 tablespoons of butter.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of corn starch with a little milk to form a paste.

  2. Heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan, then add the corn starch mixture, stirring until thickened.

  3. Season the sauce with ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt and 3-4 dashes of paprika.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the sauce to the haddie and bring to a boil, then stir in the chopped eggs.

  2. If desired, add ½ cup sherry just before serving, or sprinkle with grated cheese.

  3. Serve the creamed Finnan haddie on toast.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Sherry + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Finnan haddie
Smoked fish forms the main body and flavour of the dish.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce as it heats.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding richness and body.
Hard boiled eggs
Add softness and richness, blending into the creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the fish and the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the corn starch mixture to the hot milk. Corn starch must be mixed into a paste first and stirred into hot milk so it thickens evenly; added lumpy or unstirred, it forms clumps and the sauce stays grainy.

“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

Corn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCream of Corn SoupCream of Corn Soup50 recipes