Name: Another Way to Bake Haddocks
Ingredients: 3 good-sized haddocks, cleaned and skinned; 1 cup grated bread crumbs; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 tablespoons finely minced parsley; 2 tablespoons butter; gravy or water as needed

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Another Way to Bake Haddocks

Ingredients

3 good-sized haddocks, cleaned and skinned
1 cup grated bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons finely minced parsley
2 tablespoons butter
gravy or water as needed

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Season the bread crumbs with pepper, salt, and parsley.

Assemble and bake

Strew some seasoned bread crumbs over the bottom of a baking dish.
Place the haddocks in the dish and cover them with more seasoned bread crumbs.
Dot the fish with butter and pour in enough gravy or water to fill the dish.
Bake for 1 hour, until the fish begins to brown.
Sprinkle a few more seasoned bread crumbs on top before serving.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together764 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, cooking through gently in the oven and flaking when done.
Bread crumbs: Form a seasoned crust over the fish and help it brown in the oven.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top of the fish and crumbs brown.
Gravy or water: Fills the dish to keep the fish moist while it bakes.

The step that matters

Baking the fish for the full time. Haddock is lean and cooks quickly, so overbaking can dry it out. Watch for the fish to turn opaque and flake easily, and stop once it does.

“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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Another Way to Bake Haddocks