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Stewed Haddock with Turnip or Jerusalem Artichokes

A stew of haddock, turnips, onion, and a spiced sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Haddock with Turnip or Jerusalem Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the haddock.

  2. Cut the haddock into 7 or 8 pieces without slitting it open.

Make the stew

  1. Heat the oil in a stewpan.

  2. Fry the sliced onion with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the cut turnips and water to the stewpan.

  4. Boil until the turnips are nearly tender.

  5. Add the haddock pieces and cook until done.

Thicken and serve

  1. Remove the haddock and place it in a serving dish.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, nutmeg, saffron, cayenne, and parsley until smooth.

  3. Stir this mixture into the stewpan with the turnips until thickened.

  4. Arrange the turnips around the fish.

  5. Spoon the sauce over the fish and turnips, 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. Saffron + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + saffrontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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, cooked gently in the liquid until it turns flaky.
Turnips
Add body and a mild sweetness as they soften in the simmering water.
Onion
Frying it softens and sweetens, building a savoury base for the stew.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce that coats the fish and turnips.
Saffron
Gives the sauce a golden colour and a subtle, distinctive aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture into the stewpan. Flour mixed into hot liquid can clump if not whisked smooth first. Mixing it into a paste or bowl beforehand and then stirring it in helps the sauce thicken evenly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, pepper, turnip, flour, nutmeg, saffron, parsley):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, pepper, turnip, flour, nutmeg, saffron, parsley. 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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