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Smoked Haddock Croutes

A croûte topped with smoked haddock and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Smoked Haddock Croutes

8 croûtes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Heat the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and pour in the milk, then bring to a boil.

  3. Add the haddock, anchovy essence, Krona pepper, and cayenne, stirring until hot.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pile the mixture lightly on the croûtes.

  2. Garnish with parsley and Krona pepper, and serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce base and carries the flour, giving it richness.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that holds the haddock together.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy, pourable body once thickened.
Cooked haddock
Provides the smoky, savoury flavour and the main texture of the topping.

The step that matters

Bringing the flour and milk to a boil. Flour must be cooked in the hot butter and milk must be stirred constantly as it heats. If the sauce is not brought to a boil and held briefly, the starch will not fully swell, leaving a floury taste and a thin, lumpy sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (haddock, butter, flour, milk, anchovy, pepper, bread):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against haddock, butter, flour, milk, anchovy, pepper, bread. 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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