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Dressed Haddocks

A dish of haddock fillets coated in egg and breadcrumbs, served with potato balls and a white fish stock sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dressed Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haddock

  1. Wash the haddocks.

  2. Skin the haddocks.

  3. Fillet the haddocks.

  4. Cut each fillet neatly.

  5. Dry each fillet thoroughly.

  6. Season each fillet with salt and pepper.

  7. Brush each fillet with beaten egg.

  8. Coat each fillet in breadcrumbs.

Make the potato balls

  1. Mash the potatoes smoothly.

  2. Mix in melted butter, one egg, and seasoning.

  3. Roll the potato mixture into small balls.

  4. Brush the potato balls with egg.

  5. Coat the potato balls in breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the potato balls in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Fry the fillets in hot fat until golden brown.

  3. Arrange the potato balls in the center of a dish.

  4. Place the fillets around the potato balls.

  5. Serve with a white sauce made from fish stock.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Haddock + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 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

Haddocks
Provide the main flesh, which cooks through and turns flaky in hot fat.
Potatoes
Form the soft, moist interior of the balls once mashed and bound.
Eggs
Bind the potato mixture and give the breadcrumb coating a sticking layer.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato mixture.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Dry each fillet thoroughly. Surface moisture stops egg and breadcrumbs from adhering and turns the hot fat splattery; a dry surface lets the coating crisp and brown evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, egg, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, egg, butter, pepper. 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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