Name: Savoury Haddock on Toast
Ingredients: 1 large boiled dried haddock; 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 3 egg yolks; hot fat for frying; squares of toasted or fried bread; fried parsley for garnish

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Savoury Haddock on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish mixture

Remove the skin and bones from the haddock.
Pound the flesh in a mortar.
Mix in the Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.
Shape the mixture into small balls.

Fry and serve

Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown.
Drain the fried balls and serve on squares of toasted or fried bread.
Garnish with fried 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together577 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock: Provides the main body of the balls once pounded into a paste.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savoury depth and helps the balls brown in the hot fat.
Egg yolks: Bind the pounded fish and cheese so the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Shaping and frying the balls. The mixture is soft and wet, so it can fall apart if too loose. Firm, compact balls hold together in the hot fat, and frying at a steady heat browns the outside before the centre dries out.

“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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Savoury Haddock on Toast