Skip to main content
Main

Baked Haddock

A baked haddock stuffed with breadcrumbs, parsley, herbs, and egg, then coated in flour and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Baked Haddock

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the fish clean and dry it with a cloth.

  2. Remove the eyes.

  3. Mix the bread crumbs with the chopped parsley and herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Add the beaten egg to bind the mixture together.

  5. Stuff the stomach of the fish with this mixture.

  6. Sew or skewer it shut.

  7. Tie the fish in a nice shape.

  8. Dredge it with salt, pepper, and flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a baking dish.

  2. Place the fish in the butter.

  3. Bake for about 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C), basting frequently.

  4. When done, place the fish on a hot dish. Remove the string or skewers.

  5. Serve plain or with brown gravy. Garnish with 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.

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh haddock
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking up flaky and moist when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the egg and fish, giving the stuffing a light, crumbly body.
Egg
Binds the crumb stuffing together so it holds its shape inside the fish.
Butter
Carries heat into the fish and adds richness and browning in the baking dish.

The step that matters

Sewing or skewering the fish shut. If the stuffing is not sealed well, it can leak out or swell and break open during baking, so the fish should be closed securely and tied in shape before it goes into the oven.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes