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To Dry Haddocks

A method of preserving haddock by salting, drying, and baking with egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Dry Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills, eyes, and entrails from the haddock.

  2. Wipe the fish dry.

  3. Place salt inside the bodies and eyes.

  4. Lay the fish on a board overnight.

  5. Hang the fish in a dry place for 3-4 days until ready to eat.

Cook and serve

  1. Skin the fish.

  2. Rub the fish with egg.

  3. Sprinkle the fish with bread crumbs.

  4. Place the fish before the fire.

  5. Baste the fish with butter until browned.

  6. Serve with egg sauce.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Haddock + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together220 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, which is salted, dried and then cooked.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and helps preserve it during the long drying.
Egg
Acts as a binding coat that helps the bread crumbs stick to the fish.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp coating that browns during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the surface brown while basting.

The step that matters

Hang the fish in a dry place for 3-4 days until ready to eat.. The fish must dry evenly in cool, dry air. Too much humidity or warmth can let spoilage bacteria grow before the salt and drying preserve it.

“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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