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Haddocks a LA Royale

Baked haddocks stuffed with whiting meat, topped with sole fillets, truffles, bacon, and served with Parisian sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and whiting match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haddocks a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haddocks

  1. Bone and stuff the haddocks with quenelle force-meat of whiting.

  2. Place the haddocks head to tail on a baking sheet.

  3. Season the haddocks with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Bake the haddocks until cooked through.

  5. Allow the haddocks to cool.

Decorate and bake

  1. Cover the haddocks with a thin layer of quenelle force-meat.

  2. Arrange fillets of soles on top in a slanting direction.

  3. Mask the heads with force-meat mixed with pounded lobster-coral.

  4. Form eyes and mouth with truffles.

  5. Cover the haddocks with thin layers of bacon.

  6. Place a buttered paper over the haddocks.

  7. Return the haddocks to the oven about 45 minutes before serving to finish baking.

Serve

  1. Remove the paper and bacon.

  2. Absorb excess grease with a clean napkin.

  3. Transfer the haddocks to a serving dish.

  4. Sauce around the haddocks with Parisian sauce.

  5. Garnish with quenelles of lobster and a large scallop of truffle.

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. Haddock + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Meat + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Whiting + truffletop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together59 recipes
  5. Meat + whitingtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Haddocks
Form the main body of the dish, carrying the stuffing and decoration.
Quenelle force-meat of whiting
Forms a light, tender stuffing and coating that sets as it cooks.
Fillets of soles
Add delicate, tender layers that decorate the fish's surface.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and flavour as it renders over the fish.
Truffles
Add an earthy aroma and dark contrast for decoration.

The step that matters

Return the haddocks to the oven about 45 minutes before serving. Fish protein sets quickly and turns dry or tough if overbaked, so the second bake must be timed to finish just before serving while the force-meat stays moist.

“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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