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To Dry Haddocks

A method of drying haddock by salting, egg coating, breadcrumbing, and butter-basting.

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

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

  2. Wipe the fish dry and fill the bodies and eyes with salt.

  3. Lay the fish on a board overnight.

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

Cook and serve

  1. Brush the fish with egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Place the fish before the fire and baste with butter until browned.

  3. 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, and its flesh is what the salting and drying act on.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the fish and firms the flesh during the dry curing.
Egg
Acts as a binding coat that helps the bread crumbs adhere and encourages browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the fish when heated.
Butter
Adds fat that carries heat across the surface, promoting browning and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Hanging the fish in a dry place. Drying too quickly or in damp conditions can let spoilage bacteria grow before the salt has drawn out enough moisture. Keeping the air dry and the fish cool lets the salt cure the flesh evenly.

“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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