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Boiled Haddock with Parsley Sauce

A boiled haddock served with a parsley sauce made from butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Boiled Haddock with Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Wash the haddock thoroughly.

  2. Place the haddock in a large pan with cold water and a handful of coarse sea salt.

  3. In a fish kettle, cover the fish with cold water, add vinegar, salt, cloves, thyme, and marjoram.

  4. Bring the kettle to a boil.

  5. Check if the fish is done by pulling out a fin; it should come out easily and the flesh should be clear white.

  6. Remove the kettle from the heat and let the fish sit in the water until ready to serve.

Make the parsley sauce

  1. Melt butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in flour until it bubbles.

  3. Slowly add ½ pint of boiling water, stirring constantly until it thickens and clings to the spoon.

  4. Remove the sauce from heat.

  5. Add chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Serve

  1. Carefully lift the fish without breaking it.

  2. Remove the skin.

  3. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Firm white flesh that flakes into moist pieces when gently poached.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce and carries its flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells and sets in the hot liquid.
Parsley
Provides fresh, green aroma and flavor to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, lightly flavoring the fish.

The step that matters

Test the fish and take it off the heat in time. Haddock keeps cooking in the hot water after the kettle leaves the heat. Overcooked fish turns dry and falls apart, so check doneness with the fin test before the fish sits too long.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, parsley, flour, thyme, marjoram, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, parsley, flour, thyme, marjoram, vinegar. 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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