Name: Savoury of Dried Haddock
Ingredients: 1 large boiled dried haddock; 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 3 egg yolks; butter or lard for frying; squares of toasted or fried bread; fried parsley for garnish

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury of Dried Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Remove all skin and bones from the haddock.
Pound the flesh in a mortar until smooth.

Make and fry the balls

Mix in the Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.
Shape the mixture into small balls.
Fry the balls in boiling butter or lard until golden.

Serve

Serve on squares of toasted or fried bread and garnish with fried parsley.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried haddock: Forms the main body of the balls, providing the savory fish flavour and bulk.
Egg yolks: Bind the mixture together and help the balls hold their shape while frying.
Parmesan cheese: Adds salty, savory flavour and helps the mixture brown when fried.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in boiling butter or lard. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn soggy and can fall apart before a golden crust forms.

“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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Savoury of Dried Haddock