Name: Finnan Haddie a LA Delmonico
Ingredients: 1 pound finnan haddie; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 cups heavy cream sauce; 2 egg yolks, well beaten; 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped; 1 tablespoon grated Edam cheese; red pepper, to taste; toast, for serving

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Finnan Haddie a LA Delmonico

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Heat the finnan haddie in a pan.

Make the sauce

In a separate bowl, mix the butter, heavy cream sauce, and beaten egg yolks.
Add the heated haddie to the mixture and stir until thoroughly heated.
Fold in the chopped hard boiled eggs and grated Edam cheese.
Season with red pepper to taste.

Serve

Serve the mixture 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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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: Smoked haddock is the main protein, flaked into the creamy mixture.
Egg yolks: Beaten yolks thicken the cream sauce as they gently heat, adding richness.
Heavy cream sauce: Provides the rich, moist base that carries the fish and eggs.
Hard boiled eggs: Chopped whites and yolks add body and a firm, soft texture to the mixture.
Edam cheese: Melts slightly into the warm sauce, adding savoury flavour and a little richness.

The step that matters

Stir the haddie into the egg yolk mixture until thoroughly heated. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if the mixture gets too hot too quickly. Gentle, steady stirring keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

“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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Finnan Haddie a LA Delmonico