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Creamed Finnan Haddie

Smoked haddock (finnan haddie) is flaked and mixed with cream sauce, then served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Creamed Finnan Haddie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the Finnan haddie in cold water for ½ hour, skin side up.

  2. Drain the fish and cover it with hot milk.

  3. Let it stand in the hot milk for 5 minutes.

  4. Drain again and remove all skin and bones from the fish.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook the fish flakes in butter for a moment before adding the cream sauce.

  2. At the end, stir in a little sherry and the minced red pepper or cayenne.

  3. Serve the mixture on toast.

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. Haddock + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Finnan haddie (smoked haddock)
Provides the main smoky flavour and the flaky fish that forms the dish.
Hot milk
Softens the salted, dried fish and draws out some of its salt for a milder taste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the fish flakes warm gently in the sauce.
Cream sauce
Supplies moisture and a creamy texture that binds the flaked fish.

The step that matters

Cook the fish flakes in butter before adding the cream sauce. Warming the flaked fish briefly in butter lets it heat through and absorb some fat before the liquid goes in, so it stays tender rather than turning watery or tough when the sauce is added and simmered.

“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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