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Croutes of Haddock

A dish of haddock mixed with eggs, milk, butter, and seasonings, served on hot toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Croutes of Haddock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haddock

  1. Place the haddock in a bowl.

  2. Cover with boiling water.

  3. Let stand for 15 minutes.

  4. Dry the haddock.

  5. Remove skin and bones.

  6. Chop the fish finely.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the fish.

  3. Season well.

  4. Stir in the eggs beaten with the milk.

  5. Cook over gentle heat until stiff.

  6. Add the parsley.

Serve

  1. Pile the mixture on rounds of hot toast.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 filling and provides its flaky texture once chopped and cooked.
Eggs
Set when gently heated, binding the fish into a stiff, spreadable mixture.
Milk
Thins the beaten eggs slightly so they cook into a softer, creamier set.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the fish is cooked in it.

The step that matters

Cook over gentle heat until stiff. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures; high heat makes them curdle and turn grainy and watery, so the mixture should be cooked slowly and stirred until just thick.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, egg, milk, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, egg, milk, pepper, butter. 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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