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To Boil Haddocks

Boiled haddocks served with melted butter and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Boil Haddocks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the haddocks thoroughly, opening them and removing the insides.

  2. Wash the insides well and remove the gills.

  3. Curl the haddocks and fasten the tails to the mouths.

Boil and serve

  1. Place them on a fish plate and lay them in warm salted water.

  2. Add a small bit of saltpetre to firm the fish (optional).

  3. Skim the water and simmer the haddocks for 7 to 10 minutes, depending on their size.

  4. Serve hot with melted butter and anchovy sauce.

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 + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Haddock + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Haddocks
Provide the flesh that is cooked and served as the main component of the dish.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cooking water so the fish is flavoured as it poaches.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the mild fish when served.

The step that matters

Simmer the haddocks gently for the stated time. Fish proteins set and turn opaque as they heat, and overcooking squeezes out moisture, making the flesh dry and firm. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the fish tender and intact.

“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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