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Haddocks Boiled a LA Hollandaise

Boiled haddock served with elder vinegar Hollandaise sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,477 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Haddocks Boiled a LA Hollandaise

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the haddock

  1. Place the haddocks in a kettle of cold spring water and add plenty of coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat and let the haddocks simmer until cooked through.

Serve

  1. Drain the water and serve the haddocks on a fish plate.

  2. Prepare Hollandaise sauce with elder vinegar and pour it over the haddocks, garnishing with parsley.

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. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  2. Haddock + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Haddock + vinegartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together90 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

Haddocks
Form the main body of the dish, setting into flaky pieces when gently simmered.
Elder vinegar
Adds acidity to the Hollandaise sauce, balancing its richness.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the poaching water so the fish is flavoured as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmering the haddocks. Once the water boils, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. A hard boil toughens and breaks up delicate fish proteins, leaving the flesh dry and ragged rather than tender and flaky.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, vinegar):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, vinegar. 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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