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Haddock & Spinach Cheese Melt

A low-fat, hearty fish supper that uses just five ingredients. Try serving with creamy mashed potatoes

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and haddock work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep5 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and set a shallow baking dish nearby.

  2. Put the baby spinach in a saucepan with a splash of water over medium heat, stirring for about 2 minutes until wilted. Drain well and press out the excess liquid.

  3. Spread the wilted spinach evenly in the baking dish and arrange the two haddock pieces on top.

  4. Spread the soft cheese over the haddock pieces, covering them evenly.

  5. Lay the tomato slices over the cheese and sprinkle the grated Parmesan on top.

  6. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the thickest part of the haddock reaches 145°F (63°C) and the flesh is opaque and flakes easily.

  7. Rest for 2 minutes, then divide between two plates and serve.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Spinach + haddocktop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Spinach + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Cheese + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,892 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Spinach + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Haddock + tomatotop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

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

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Chiveabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, cheese, haddock. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).