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Baked Haddock

A baked haddock stuffed with breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, and coated in egg, served with gravy or melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Baked Haddock

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. Ensure the fish is fresh. Clean, scale, wash, and dry the haddock; cut off the fins.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, suet, parsley, herbs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stuff the mixture into the fish, sew it up, and tie it securely.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg in a plate, brush the fish with it, and dip it into the bread crumbs.

  2. Grease a baking tin with dripping, place the fish in it, and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Once done, remove the cotton and string. Serve on a hot dish with gravy or melted butter.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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 and cooks through in the oven as the central protein.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs adhere to the fish surface.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during baking.
Dripping
Greases the tin and adds fat that helps the outside brown and crisp.
Bread crumbs
Forms a golden coating and absorbs moisture in the stuffing.

The step that matters

Stuffing and sewing the fish. If the stuffing is packed too loosely or the fish is sewn unevenly, filling can leak or fall out during baking. Securing the cavity well keeps the stuffing moist and the fish intact while it cooks.

“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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