Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fish Pudding of a Haddock
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Wash the haddock in cold water.
Put it into boiling water with a little salt.
Cover and simmer for fifteen minutes.
Carefully remove the fish and cut off the head and tail.
Skin the fish from head to tail and remove the bones.
Cut the fish into small dice-sized pieces and place in a basin.
Make the mixture
Boil the potatoes until tender, then dry them to make them mealy.
Pass the potatoes through a wire sieve using a wooden spoon.
Mix the potatoes with the haddock pieces.
Add pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste.
Incorporate the butter and the slightly beaten egg into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Shape the mixture into a fish-like form on a buttered baking tin.
Dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for fifteen minutes until golden brown.
Serve with egg sauce.
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.
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Haddock + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together171 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together764 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 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 pudding and supplies its flaky, savoury flavour.
- Potatoes
- Mealy starch that binds the fish and gives the pudding a soft, tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown in the oven.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when baked.
The step that matters
Drying the potatoes before sieving. Potatoes that stay wet turn gluey and heavy when mashed. Drying them until mealy lets them crumble into a light, fluffy base that holds the fish together.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, egg, pepper):
- Potatothe original
- Chivefits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, egg, pepper. 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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