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Stuffing for Haddock or Any Other Fish

A savory fish stuffing made with egg yolks, oysters, anchovies, shallot, parsley, spices, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffing for Haddock or Any Other Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Combine egg yolks, chopped oysters, pounded anchovies, chopped shallot or onion, and chopped parsley in a bowl.

  2. Season the mixture with coarse sea salt, cayenne, allspice, mace, and black pepper.

  3. Add bread crumbs or biscuit powder equal to the weight of the mixture and mix well.

Cook the stuffing

  1. Melt butter over low heat.

  2. Add the mixture to the pan and simmer until it absorbs the butter.

  3. Sprinkle in more bread crumbs or biscuit powder until it forms a ball.

Fill the fish

  1. Use this stuffing to fill the fish.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 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

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when filled.
Oysters
Add moisture and a briny, savoury flavour to the stuffing.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury flavour that rounds out the seafood taste.
Bread crumbs or biscuit powder
Absorb the butter and moisture, giving the stuffing body and a firm texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and keeping the stuffing moist.

The step that matters

Simmering until the mixture absorbs the butter. Cooking over low heat lets the crumbs soak up the melted butter gradually. Too much heat can scorch the butter and dry or toughen the stuffing, while too little leaves it greasy and unable to form a ball.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, oyster, clove, parsley, pepper, allspice, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, clove, parsley, pepper, allspice, butter. 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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