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To Bake Haddocks

Baked haddocks topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and butter, cooked in a dish with gravy or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

To Bake Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean, skin, and remove the heads from the haddocks.

  2. Season the bread crumbs with pepper, salt, and parsley.

Assemble

  1. Strew some seasoned bread crumbs over the bottom of a dish.

  2. Place the fish in the dish and cover with more seasoned bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter and add enough gravy or water to fill the dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

  2. When the fish begins to brown, add a few more seasoned bread crumbs on top.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Haddock
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into flaky, tender pieces.
Bread crumbs
Form a seasoned crust on top that browns and helps keep the fish moist.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.
Gravy or water
Provides liquid that keeps the fish moist and creates a sauce while baking.

The step that matters

Adding the top crumbs as the fish browns. Adding crumbs too early can make them soggy or burn, while adding them once the fish starts to brown lets them form a golden, crisp layer that protects the fish.

“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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