Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Fillets of Haddock with Italian Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Fillet the haddock and cut the fillets into smaller pieces.
Brush the fillets with liquid butter and place them in a buttered baking dish.
Bake and serve
Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Cover with buttered paper and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10-12 minutes.
Drain, arrange on a serving platter, and serve with Italian sauce.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together764 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Haddock + lemontop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together299 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.
- Liquid butter
- Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender while it bakes.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
The step that matters
Covering with buttered paper before baking. The cover traps steam around the fish so it cooks gently and stays moist. Without it, the thin pieces can dry out at high oven heat before they are cooked through.
“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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