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Cream of Smoked Haddock in Cases

A creamy soup made from smoked haddock, butter, milk, egg yolks, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and cream work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 181 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cream of Smoked Haddock in Cases

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Poach the smoked haddock until softened, then remove all bones and skin.

  2. Pound the fish in a mortar with butter until it forms a paste.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish the paste

  1. Moisten the paste with milk, egg yolks, and cream, then season with salt and Nepal pepper.

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 + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked haddock
Provides the main flavour and, once poached and pounded, the body of the paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the pounded fish become a smooth paste.
Milk
Loosens the paste and adds moisture for a creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsifying power, thickening the mixture as it is smoothed.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, giving a richer, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Passing the mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding alone leaves fibres and small lumps. Sieving removes them and gives the smooth, even texture the dish depends on. Skipping it or rushing it leaves the paste coarse.

“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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