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Baked Haddock

A whole haddock stuffed with veal, coated in butter or breadcrumbs, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Baked Haddock

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Fill the interior of the haddock with veal stuffing and sew it up with kitchen twine.

  2. Truss the fish with its tail in its mouth.

  3. Rub the back of the fish with butter, or coat it with egg and breadcrumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish in a baking dish and bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bake for 30 minutes for common haddock or 45-60 minutes for Dubun Bay haddock.

  3. Check for doneness by inserting a knife to the backbone; if the flesh parts easily, it is done.

  4. Serve on a dish without a napkin and accompany with Beyrut sauce or another 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.

  1. Haddock + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into flaky, tender flesh.
Veal stuffing
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavour as the fish bakes.
Butter
Rubbed on the skin to add richness and promote gentle browning.
Egg
Coating that helps breadcrumbs adhere and forms a golden crust.
Breadcrumbs
Coating that crisps and browns during baking, adding texture.

The step that matters

Check for doneness at the backbone. Fish cooks quickly and dries out past doneness. Testing with a knife at the backbone shows whether the flesh flakes easily, so the fish is removed once it is cooked through but still moist.

“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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