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Haddock Done This Way

A whole haddock, grilled, then stuffed with chopped egg, butter, anchovy, nutmeg and lemon peel before baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Haddock Done This Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale, gut, and wash the haddock clean, removing the gills.

  2. Dry the fish with a clean cloth.

  3. If there is any roe or liver, set it aside and then put it back in the fish.

  4. Flour the fish well and prepare a hot grill.

Grill

  1. Place the haddock on the grill, turning it two or three times to prevent sticking.

  2. Once cooked, place the fish in a dish.

Stuff and bake

  1. Mix the grated bread, chopped eggs, nutmeg, lemon peel, and roe or liver (if using) with the raw egg and butter.

  2. Roll this mixture and place it inside the fish's belly before baking.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Anchovy + roetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Haddock + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Anchovy + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Haddock + roetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14 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 to a flaky, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and carrying the anchovy flavour.
Raw egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together when rolled and placed inside the fish.
Flour
Coats the fish surface, helping it brown and form a protective crust on the grill.
Anchovy
Dissolved in butter to add a savoury, salty depth to the dish.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Flour the fish well and turn it on the grill. A dry, floured surface helps the skin release from hot metal, while turning it two or three times prevents the proteins from bonding to the grate and tearing the fish.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, anchovy, oyster, egg, lemon, roe):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, anchovy, oyster, egg, lemon, roe. 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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