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And Haddocks

A stuffed haddock filled with oysters, anchovies, breadcrumbs, parsley, onion, and spices, baked with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and onion work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 428 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

And Haddocks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Scale and clean the haddock, leaving the breast largely intact.

  2. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, chopped oysters, anchovies, biscuit or bread, parsley, onion, mace, black pepper, allspice, and salt.

  3. Melt butter in a pan and stir the mixture over heat until thick, adding more biscuit or flour if needed.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the haddock with the mixture and sew up the slit.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting with butter and adding more butter on top.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Biscuit + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Biscuit + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together204 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing and set it firm when heated, giving a thick texture.
Biscuit or grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing body so it holds together.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor that seasons the stuffing from within.
Anchovies
Contribute salty, savory depth that enhances the fish flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish brown and stay moist while baking.

The step that matters

Stirring the stuffing until thick. Egg yolks set when heated, so stirring over heat until thick gives a stable stuffing. Heating too hard or too long can scramble the yolks and make the mixture grainy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, haddock, egg, oyster, biscuit, parsley, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, haddock, egg, oyster, biscuit, parsley, onion. 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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