To Clean and Prepare Haddocks for Keeping
Ingredients
Directions
Clean the fish
Scrape the haddocks and remove the entrails.
Cut them open below the vent to scrape out the blood from the backbone.
Trim the points of the tails, and remove the eyes and gills.
Wash the fish and rub salt inside the bodies.
Preserve the fish
Let them sit overnight.
Hang the fish on a wooden rod through the eyes in a cool, open-air place.
They can be boiled or broiled after removing the heads and skin.
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
What each ingredient does
- Haddocks
- The main fish, whose flesh is cleaned and preserved for later cooking.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture from the fish, helping preserve it during curing.
The step that matters
Rubbing salt inside the bodies. Salt must reach the flesh evenly to draw out moisture and slow spoilage. Missed areas, especially near the backbone, can spoil before the fish dries.
“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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