Name: Haddock Stuffed and Baked
Ingredients: 1 haddock; 3 tablespoons bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon dried and powdered herbs; 1 dessertspoon chopped parsley; pepper to taste; salt to taste; part of an egg or a little milk to bind the stuffing; butter or dripping for greasing

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Haddock Stuffed and Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Mix the bread crumbs, parsley, herbs, pepper, and salt with the egg or milk.
Stuff the mixture into the haddock and fasten it with a small skewer.
Truss the haddock with string or two skewers in the shape of an 'S'.

Bake

Place the haddock on a greased baking tin and dot with butter or dripping.
Bake until cooked through, basting occasionally.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 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).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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).

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 cooks into flaky, tender flesh.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the stuffing a soft, cohesive body.
Egg or milk: Binds the stuffing so it holds together during cooking.
Butter or dripping: Adds fat that enriches flavour and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Stuffing and trussing the haddock. Packing the stuffing too tightly or trussing unevenly can make the fish split or cook unevenly. Fastening the opening firmly keeps the stuffing inside while the fish cooks through gently.

“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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Haddock Stuffed and Baked