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Baked Haddock

A haddock fillet stuffed with herbs and breadcrumbs, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Haddock

Ingredients

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

  1. Wash and clean the haddock in cold water, then dry it with a cloth.

  2. Prepare 4 tablespoons of bread crumbs.

  3. Wash the parsley, remove the stalks, and dry it with a cloth. Chop the parsley finely (about 2 teaspoons).

  4. Mince the thyme and marjoram finely (about 1 teaspoon each).

Stuff and coat

  1. Mix the parsley and herbs with 1 tablespoon of bread crumbs, a little pepper, coarse sea salt, and ½ oz. of butter or dripping.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the belly of the fish and sew it up.

  3. Beat the egg in a plate. Brush the haddock with the beaten egg and roll it in bread crumbs to cover completely.

Bake

  1. Grease a dish with butter or dripping.

  2. Place the fish in the dish with a few small pieces of dripping.

  3. Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, basting frequently.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 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 and is cooked through by baking.
Egg
Beaten and brushed on the fish so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crust.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that browns during baking and helps hold the stuffing.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the fish moist and adds richness during baking.
Dripping
Adds fat for moisture and browning, used in the stuffing and under the fish.

The step that matters

Basting frequently during baking. Fish is lean and dries out quickly in the oven. Regular basting with fat keeps the flesh moist and helps the crumb coating brown evenly.

“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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