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Stuffing for Pike, Haddock, and Small Cod

A savory mixture of bacon, suet, butter, herbs, anchovies, and spices used as stuffing for pike, haddock, and small cod.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Stuffing for Pike, Haddock, and Small Cod

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine equal parts of fat bacon, beef suet, and fresh butter in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped parsley, thyme, savoury, and finely shredded onion and marjoram.

  3. Incorporate one or two anchovies, a little salt, nutmeg, and pepper, then mix all ingredients thoroughly.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon fat
Provides richness and moisture, keeping the stuffing soft and savoury.
Beef suet
Adds fat that firms when cool and keeps the stuffing moist during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich, creamy flavour that carries the herbs.
Anchovies (in the method)
Contributes savoury depth, giving a salty umami background to the fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, parsley, thyme, marjoram, anchovy, nutmeg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, parsley, thyme, marjoram, anchovy, nutmeg. 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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