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Finnan Haddie

A dish of flaked Finnan haddie mixed with cream sauce, eggs, and cheese, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Finnan Haddie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the cooked Finnan haddie and flake it finely.

  2. Prepare 2 cups of cream sauce.

Combine and serve

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream sauce with the beaten eggs, chopped hard boiled eggs, Edam cheese, and pepper.

  2. Stir in the flaked fish until heated through.

  3. Serve the mixture on hot 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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 smoky fish flavour and the flaked body of the dish.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy base that holds the mixture together.
Eggs
Beaten eggs help bind the mixture and set it slightly when heated.
Hard boiled eggs
Add soft, chopped texture and richness to the filling.
Edam cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and some richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in the flaked fish until heated through. Beaten eggs in the sauce can curdle or scramble if the mixture gets too hot. Heating gently just until the fish is warm keeps the sauce smooth and the texture even.

“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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