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Finnan Haddie

A fish dish baked with butter, milk, parsley, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Finnan Haddie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and heat the fish

  1. Soak the fish in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Drain the fish.

  3. Place the fish skin side up in a pan.

  4. Heat in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

  5. Lift out and remove the skin.

Poach and serve

  1. Cover the fish with boiling water in a pan.

  2. Keep just below boiling for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain and remove the skin.

  4. Place the fish on a hot platter.

  5. Pour over a rich white sauce.

  6. Garnish with parsley.

Bake with milk

  1. Wash the fish in cold water.

  2. Soak for 1 hour.

  3. Drain the fish.

  4. Place in a buttered baking dish.

  5. Dot with small pieces of butter.

  6. Add ½ cup of milk for each fillet.

  7. Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 to 20 minutes until most of the milk is absorbed.

  8. Garnish with parsley.

  9. Serve with toast points.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish; soaking firms and freshens its flesh before gentle heat.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the fish surface brown gently in the oven.
Milk
Provides moisture and a creamy, sauce-like coating as it reduces around the fish.

The step that matters

Keep the poaching water just below boiling. At a full boil, the fish's proteins tighten and toughen and the flakes break apart. Gentle, sub-boiling heat keeps the flesh tender and intact.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, milk, lemon):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, milk, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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