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To Stuff a Haddock and Bake It

A haddock stuffed with bread crumbs, herbs, suet, and egg, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Stuff a Haddock and Bake It

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the haddock in cold water.

  2. Dry the haddock with a cloth.

  3. Grate some bread crumbs onto a piece of paper.

  4. Wash the parsley in cold water. Dry the parsley with a cloth. Chop the parsley finely.

  5. Chop the thyme and marjoram finely, removing the stalks.

  6. Mix the chopped herbs with 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs. Add pepper and salt to taste. Mix in the suet.

Stuff and coat

  1. Stuff the belly of the fish with the stuffing. Sew the fish belly closed.

  2. Beat the egg in a plate. Brush the beaten egg over the fish. Roll the fish in the bread crumbs.

Bake

  1. Grease a dish or tin with dripping. Place the fish in the dish. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes, basting frequently with dripping.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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, cooked through by baking around the stuffing.
Suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside and bind the stuffing.
Egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumb coating adheres to the fish.
Dripping
Fat for basting that helps the surface brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Sew the fish belly closed. If the stuffing is not sealed inside, it can leak out during baking and dry out, so the fish should be closed firmly before coating and baking.

“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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