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Stuffing for Pilsc, Haddock, and Small Cod

A savory stuffing made with bacon, suet, butter, herbs, anchovies, breadcrumbs, and egg, used to fill fish before cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 Pilsc, Haddock, and Small Cod

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine fat bacon, beef suet, and fresh butter.

  2. Add parsley, thyme, savory, onion, marjoram, anchovies, salt, nutmeg, and pepper.

  3. Mix in breadcrumbs and the egg to bind the mixture.

Stuff the fish

  1. Stuff the mixture into the fish of your choice before cooking.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Breadcrumbs
Absorb the melted fat and give the stuffing body so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when stuffed into the fish.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury richness that keeps the stuffing moist.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during cooking.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and flavour, contributing richness and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Stuff the mixture into the fish of your choice before cooking. The stuffing must be firm enough to hold its shape. Binding with egg and breadcrumbs helps it stay put, so packing it loosely risks it falling out during cooking.

Swap the onion

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

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

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