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Baked Haddock

Baked haddock seasoned with salt and pepper, coated in flour, baked with fat salt pork, served with optional garnishes and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,255 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Baked Haddock

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sprinkle the fish on both sides with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then dredge thickly with flour.

  3. Lay several slices of fat salt pork in a dripping pan and place the fish on top.

  4. Insert strips of pork into deep gashes cut into the fish if desired.

  5. Cover the head and tail with pork or greased thick paper to prevent burning.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake without adding water, basting when the flour browns and every 10 minutes thereafter.

  2. A 4 lb. fish will bake for about 1 hour.

  3. Carefully lift the fish to a heated platter and garnish with lemon, watercress, parsley, fried potato balls, or Saratoga potato chips.

  4. Serve with Sauce Hollandaise or another appropriate sauce.

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. Oyster + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,255 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

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

  3. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Haddock
The main fish, which is cooked whole and becomes flaky and moist in the oven.
Flour
Dredging coats the fish surface, helping it brown and form a light crust.
Fat salt pork
Renders fat into the pan and keeps the fish moist while it bakes.
Sea salt
Seasons the fish surface and draws out flavor from the flesh.

The step that matters

Covering the head and tail. Thin ends of the fish dry out and scorch before the thick middle is cooked, so covering them with pork or greased paper protects them from burning.

“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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