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Haddie Hash

A hash of leftover haddock, boiled potatoes, milk, onion juice, parsley, red pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Haddie Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all bones from the finnan haddie.

  2. Chop the boiled potatoes finely, using twice the amount of fish.

  3. Mix the fish and potatoes well.

  4. Add milk, onion juice, parsley, and red pepper to season.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add the mixture to the pan and toss until well browned.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 flesh and smoky, savoury flavour of the hash.
Boiled potatoes
Bulk the hash and, once browned, add crisp edges and body.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than drying out in the pan.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and promotes browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Toss until well browned. Browning depends on direct contact with a hot, buttered pan and enough time without overcrowding. Stirring too early or too often keeps the surface pale and moist, so the hash lacks the crisp, caramelised flavour that browning produces.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, parsley, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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