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Haddocks and Whitings

A broiled haddock or whiting served with melted butter or shrimp sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Haddocks and Whitings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Gut and wash the fish thoroughly.

  2. Dry the fish with a cloth.

  3. Rub a little vinegar over the fish to prevent the skin from breaking.

  4. Coat the fish well with flour.

Broil

  1. Rub the gridiron with beef suet.

  2. Heat the gridiron until very hot.

  3. Place the fish on the gridiron.

  4. Turn the fish two or three times while broiling.

  5. Serve with plain melted butter or shrimp sauce.

Alternative method

  1. Alternatively, place cleaned and dried fish in a tin oven before a hot fire.

  2. When the skins begin to rise, remove the fish from the fire.

  3. Beat one egg.

  4. Rub the beaten egg over the fish with a feather.

  5. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the fish.

  6. Coat the fish with flour.

  7. Rub the hot gridiron with suet or butter.

  8. Lay the fish on the gridiron.

  9. Turn the fish and rub with a little butter until cooked through.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 or whiting
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked by direct heat until flaky.
Vinegar
Light acid rubbed on the skin to help it hold together during cooking.
Flour
Coats the fish so the surface dries and browns and holds the crust.
Egg
Beaten and brushed on the fish to bind the crumbs and help them set into a coating.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the fish surface.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked fish from drying out.

The step that matters

Remove the fish when the skins begin to rise. The skin lifts as the fish heats and it can overcook quickly. Pulling it from the heat at that point helps keep the flesh moist and tender rather than dry.

“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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