Name: Haddock, Stuffed
Ingredients: 1 fresh haddock; whiting forcemeat (see Whiting Forcemeat); chopped mushrooms; savoury herbs; white wine; fish stock; bechamel sauce (see Bechamel Sauce); cream

Why it works: Haddock and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haddock, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Open the haddock down the middle without separating the fillets and remove the backbone.
Make a stuffing with whiting, chopped mushrooms, and savoury herbs.
Stuff the fish with the mixture and tie it closed with string.
Place the fish in a fish kettle with enough white wine and fish stock to half cover it.
Boil slowly, basting often while cooking.
Once done, lift the fish out and skim the fat from the cooking liquid.
Strain the liquid and add an equal amount of bechamel sauce.
Reduce to the proper consistency and thicken with cream.
Arrange the fish on a dish and cover it with the sauce.

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.

Haddock + whitingtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together103 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together236 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Haddock + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together200 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Haddock + creamtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together181 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).