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Baked Haddock with Spinach and Tomatoes

"Delicious baked haddock with spinach, diced tomatoes, smothered in a rich, tangy tomato sauce."

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Why it works: Haddock and tomato work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 128 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep10 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add the thinly sliced onion, and cook about 5 minutes until soft.

  2. Stir in the squeezed-dry spinach, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook 3 minutes until hot. Spread the spinach mixture evenly in a baking dish.

  3. In a small saucepan, melt the second 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add the minced onion and cook 2 minutes until soft.

  4. Whisk the cornstarch into the reserved tomato juices until smooth, then add to the saucepan with the diced tomatoes, dried thyme and dried tarragon. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes until slightly thickened.

  5. Arrange the haddock fillets over the spinach in the baking dish and pour the tomato sauce over the fish.

  6. Bake 20 minutes, or until the thickest part of the fish reaches 145°F (63°C) and the flesh is opaque and flakes easily. Serve hot.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Haddock + tomatotop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Spinach + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20,622 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, spinach, nutmeg, haddock, tomato, thyme):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, spinach, nutmeg, haddock, tomato, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).