Skip to main content
Main

Haddock with Tomatoes

A baked haddock served with tomatoes, onion, rice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Haddock with Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wipe the haddock and place it in a pie dish with milk and water.

  2. Cook in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until tender.

  3. Skin the tomatoes and slice them.

  4. Peel and finely chop the onion.

  5. Cook the rice in salted water until tender, then drain.

Combine and serve

  1. Skin and bone the haddock, then flake it.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the haddock, tomatoes, onion, and rice.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly.

  4. Serve on a hot dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main protein, which flakes into tender pieces when cooked gently in milk and water.
Rice
Adds bulk and body, absorbing the buttery juices so the dish feels substantial.
Tomatoes
Contribute moisture and a gentle acidity that brightens the fish and rice.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat for richness and carries flavour through the mixture.
Milk
Gently poaches the haddock, keeping it moist and adding mild richness.

The step that matters

Cook the haddock until tender. Fish proteins set quickly and turn dry and tough if overcooked. Cooking gently in milk and water keeps the flakes moist, so check for tenderness before flaking.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, milk, tomato, rice, butter, pepper, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes