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Stuffing for Haddock or Any Other Fish

A savory stuffing made with oysters, anchovies, garlic or onion, parsley, spices, bread crumbs, and butter for filling haddock or other fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffing for Haddock or Any Other Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, chopped oysters, pounded anchovies, chopped garlic or onion, and chopped parsley.

  2. Season the mixture with coarse sea salt, cayenne, allspice, mace, and black pepper.

  3. Add bread crumbs or biscuit powder equal to the weight of the mixture and mix well.

  4. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and add the mixture, simmering until it absorbs the butter.

  5. As the mixture begins to bind, sprinkle in more bread crumbs until it forms a ball.

  6. Use this stuffing to fill the fish before cooking.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the stuffing together and help it set when cooked.
Bread crumbs or biscuit powder
Absorb the butter and oysters and give the stuffing body so it holds a shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the stuffing.
Oysters
Provide the main savoury, briny flavour of the stuffing.
Anchovies
Add deep savoury flavour that blends into the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmering the mixture in the butter. Over low heat the mixture must absorb the butter gradually without scorching or splitting the egg yolks. Adding crumbs as it binds keeps the texture firm enough to hold a ball shape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, oyster, clove, parsley, pepper, allspice, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, oyster, clove, parsley, pepper, allspice, bread. 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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