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Broiled Haddocks

Broiled haddocks seasoned with coarse sea salt, flour, and butter, served with plain or anchovy butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and anchovy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Broiled Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale, gut, and wash the haddocks clean.

  2. Remove the gills and gut without ripping open the bellies.

  3. Dry the fish with a clean cloth.

  4. If there is any roe or liver, set it aside and then return it to the fish.

  5. Flour the haddocks well.

Broil and serve

  1. Preheat the grill until hot and clean.

  2. Place the haddocks on the grill and turn them two or three times to prevent sticking.

  3. Cook one side until done, then turn to cook the other side.

  4. Serve the haddocks in a dish with plain butter or anchovy butter.

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. Haddock + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Haddock + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together401 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Haddocks
The main protein; cooked through on the grill, its flesh turns opaque and flakes.
Flour
Dusting the fish creates a thin coat that helps it brown and reduces sticking to the grill.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when served over the hot fish.
Anchovy
Optional; adds a salty, savoury depth to the anchovy butter.

The step that matters

Turning the fish on the grill. Fish flesh sticks to hot bars and tears when moved too early. Turning only two or three times, once the surface has set and released, keeps the fillets intact and the skin from breaking.

“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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