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Haddock Stuffed and Baked

A whole haddock stuffed with forcemeat, baked in butter, anchovy, lemon sauce, and topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and anchovy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haddock Stuffed and Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills from the haddock.

  2. Stuff the forcemeat into the side of the fish.

  3. Place the fish in a tin baking dish.

Bake and baste

  1. Pour ¾ pint of thin melted butter flavored with anchovy and lemon juice around the fish.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the flesh easily leaves the bone, about 1 hour.

  3. Baste the fish frequently with the sauce.

Serve

  1. Carefully transfer the fish to a hot dish.

  2. Strain the sauce over the fish and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Serve very hot.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 flaky, tender flesh.
Forcemeat
Stuffing that flavors the fish and adds moisture as it cooks inside the body.
Melted butter
Carries the anchovy and lemon flavors and keeps the fish moist while baking.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savory depth to the butter sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter sauce.
Bread crumbs
Sprinkled on top to add a light, golden crust when served.

The step that matters

Bake until the flesh easily leaves the bone. Fish turns dry and tough once overcooked, so checking that the flesh flakes away from the bone helps keep it moist. Frequent basting with the butter sauce also protects the surface from drying out.

“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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