Why it works: Haddock and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 764 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Finnan Haddock
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the skin from the haddock.
Rub the fish with butter.
Cook and serve
Steam the fish in a basin of boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve hot with a little more butter rubbed over.
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.
-
Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together764 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
- Finnan haddock
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming moist and flaky when gently steamed.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the fish from drying out during steaming.
The step that matters
Steam the fish gently in boiling water. Steam cooks the fish with moist heat, so it stays tender. Once the fish is opaque and flakes easily at the thickest point, it is cooked; overcooking dries it and makes the flesh 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.
You might also like
Boiled Haddock10 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.