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Finnan Haddie

A smoked haddock fillet baked with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 764 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Finnan Haddie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Pour boiling water over the fish.

  2. Remove the fish from the water and place it on a baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the fish with butter and sprinkle with pepper.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 8 to 10 minutes.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Haddock + peppertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together696 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Finnan haddie (smoked haddock)
Provides the main flesh and smoky flavour that defines the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the surface brown lightly and keeping the fish moist.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Fish is delicate and overcooks quickly. Baking only until the flesh turns opaque and flakes easily keeps it moist and tender instead of dry and tough.

“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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