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Baked Haddock

A whole haddock is stuffed with a breadcrumb mixture, baked with butter and broth, and finished with a flour‑thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Baked Haddock

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Make a stuffing by mixing bread crumbs, suet or dripping, egg yolk, parsley, thyme, winter savory, pepper, salt, and lemon peel.

  2. Stuff the haddock with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed fish in a baking dish.

  2. Pour butter or dripping over the fish and add broth or water.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 to 1.5 hours, basting several times.

  4. Dust the fish with flour to thicken the gravy.

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 + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together863 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Is the main protein, cooked whole so the stuffing and juices stay moist around it.
Bread crumbs
Bind the stuffing and absorb the fat and juices, giving it a soft, moist texture.
Egg yolk
Helps bind the stuffing together and adds richness to its texture.
Suet or dripping
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing and fish moist and adds savoury flavour.
Butter or dripping
Adds fat to the baking dish, enriching the juices and helping the fish brown.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as it bakes.

The step that matters

Basting several times during baking. Regular basting spoons hot fat and liquid over the fish, keeping its surface from drying out while the thicker parts cook through gently.

Swap the winter savory

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Winter savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, bread, egg, parsley, thyme, 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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