Skip to main content
Main

Haddocks a LA Royale

A baked haddock dish stuffed with whiting quenelle, seasoned, topped with soles, lobster, truffles, bacon, butter, and served with Parisian sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Haddock and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haddocks a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haddocks

  1. Bone the haddocks and stuff them with the quenelle force-meat of whiting.

  2. Place the haddocks head to tail on a baking sheet.

  3. Season the haddocks with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Bake the haddocks until cooked through.

Decorate

  1. Once cooled, cover the haddocks with a thin layer of quenelle force-meat.

  2. Arrange fillets of soles on top of the haddocks at a slant.

  3. Mask the heads of the haddocks with force-meat mixed with pounded lobster-coral.

  4. Form eyes and mouth on the heads with truffles.

  5. Cover the haddocks with thin layers of bacon.

  6. Place a buttered paper over the top of the haddocks.

Finish and serve

  1. About 45 minutes before serving, bake the haddocks to finish cooking.

  2. Just before serving, remove the paper and bacon.

  3. Absorb excess grease with a clean napkin.

  4. Transfer the haddocks to a serving dish.

  5. Sauce around the haddocks with Parisian sauce.

  6. Garnish with quenelles of lobster and truffles.

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. Haddock + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Haddock + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Whiting + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddocks
Form the main body of the dish and carry the flavour of the whole presentation.
Quenelle force-meat of whiting
Provides a light, tender stuffing and a smooth layer that keeps the fish moist.
Fillets of soles
Add delicate fish texture to the decorated surface of the haddocks.
Bacon
Lays fat over the fish, adding savoury flavour and moisture while it covers the haddocks.
Truffles
Add an earthy aroma and make the dark decorative details on the heads.

The step that matters

Bake the haddocks to finish cooking. Baking until cooked through and then again before serving must not overcook the fish, since overcooked fish turns dry and firm. The protein in the flesh tightens as it heats, so gentle, timed heat keeps it moist.

“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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipes