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 ↓
Smoked Haddock Filleted
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the smoked haddock in a baking tin with a little water and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove the skin and bones from the fish, then cut it into fillets.
Bake and serve
Melt the butter in a baking dish, add the fish and parsley, and season with pepper.
Baste the fish with butter and cook for another 10 minutes, basting at short intervals.
Transfer the fish to a hot serving dish, add a little lemon juice to the sauce, pour it over the fish, and serve.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Smoked haddock
- Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into tender fillets when cooked gently.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and forms the sauce that keeps the fish from drying out.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the buttery sauce and balances the smoky fish.
The step that matters
Basting the fish at short intervals. Repeated spooning of hot butter over the fillets keeps the surface moist while the fish cooks through, preventing it from drying out in the oven.
“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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