Name: Matelot of Haddock and Oysters
Ingredients: 3 to 4 pounds haddock; 4 egg yolks; 1 pint oysters; Salt and pepper to taste; 4 large mild onions; 1 lemon

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Matelot of Haddock and Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

Remove the fillets from the haddock and cut into pieces three inches by two.
Cover the head, tail, and trimmings with oyster liquor and water.
Add a slice or two of onion, sweet herbs, and a bit of carrot.
Let simmer to form a broth.

Prepare the onions

Boil the onions separately until nearly tender.
Cut the boiled onions into even slices.

Cook and finish

In a saucepan, layer onion slices.
Arrange the fish fillets and oysters on top of the onion layer.
Dust with salt and pepper.
Add the juice of the lemon and the remaining onion slices.
Strain the broth over the whole and close the pan tightly.
Simmer gently until the fillets are tender.
Strain off the broth.
Arrange the fillets on a hot dish.
Pour the broth thickened with the diluted egg yolks over the fillets. Do not let it boil after adding the yolks.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Haddock + oystertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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 stew and flakes into tender pieces when simmered gently.
Egg yolks: Thicken the broth into a smooth, creamy sauce when heated gently.
Oysters: Add a briny, savoury flavour that deepens the taste of the broth.
Onions: Provide sweetness and body as they soften and blend into the stew.

The step that matters

Do not let it boil after adding the yolks. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, so the broth must stay below boiling to remain smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

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

Spinachfits better
Asparagusfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, egg, oyster, pepper, lemon. 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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Matelot of Haddock and Oysters