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To Bake Hake on Potatoes

A baked hake served atop sliced potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Bake Hake on Potatoes

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Rub the bottom of a large baking dish with fat bacon and dredge the dish with flour.

  3. Peel the potatoes and slice them to cover the bottom of the dish.

  4. Remove the head and backbone from the hake.

  5. Season the inside of the hake with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the hake on top of the potatoes, back side up.

  2. Lard the hake with bacon and dredge the fish with flour.

  3. Bake in the oven until cooked through.

  4. Serve hot in the same dish.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hake
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks through to become flaky and tender.
Potatoes
Form a base layer that cushions the fish and absorbs juices as it bakes.
Fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the fish moist and carries savory flavor as it renders.
Flour
Dusted on the dish and fish to help the surface brown and form a light crust.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. Fish turns dry and tough when overcooked, and underdone fish is unsafe to eat. The thickest part should flake easily and look opaque before serving.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper. 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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