Why it works: Haddock and ketchup share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 23 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Baked Haddocks
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the cleaned haddocks on a flat dish surrounded by a border of mashed potatoes.
Add a bit of butter and a pinch of coarse sea salt inside each fish.
Glaze the fish with the beaten egg and place bits of butter on top.
Garnish with potato balls.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30 minutes.
Pour melted butter and a little ketchup over the fish before serving.
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.
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Haddock + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together23 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Haddock + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together171 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together764 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Haddock
- Forms the main flesh of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
- Mashed potatoes
- Form a border around the fish and add a soft, starchy base to the dish.
- Butter
- Adds moisture and richness, helping the fish stay tender as it bakes.
- Egg
- Beaten egg glaze helps the surface set and brown in the oven.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, egg, ketchup):
- Chivefits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Mustardfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, egg, ketchup. 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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