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A Delicious Method Op Cooking Dried Haddock

A method of cooking dried haddock with bay leaves, savory herbs, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Delicious Method Op Cooking Dried Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the haddock into square pieces.

  2. Heat a basin with hot water, then pour it out.

Steam the fish

  1. Place the fish in the basin with the bay leaves and herbs.

  2. Cover with boiling water and place a plate on top to trap the steam.

  3. Let it sit for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the fish, place it on a hot dish, and rub with butter and pepper.

  2. Serve immediately.

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

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

  3. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Haddock + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Haddock
Forms the main body of the dish; gentle steam cooks it until just set and moist.
Bay leaves
Adds a subtle aromatic flavour to the steaming liquid and fish.
Savory herbs
Add fresh aromatic flavour that perfumes the fish as it steams.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished fish a smooth, moist mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Covering with a plate and timing the steam. Trapping steam cooks the fish gently with moist heat. Leaving it too long past 10 minutes can overcook the protein, making the flesh dry and tough.

“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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