Ingredient

Haddock

Haddock is a white fish with finer, softer flakes than cod and a slightly sweeter flavour. It is the classic fish for a British fish and chip shop north of the Midlands, and — smoked — it is the backbone of kedgeree, cullen skink and a proper fish pie.

Haddock against cod

They are sold side by side and are genuinely different.

Flake size

Haddock has finer, softer, smaller flakes. Cod has large, thick, meaty flakes that hold together better.

Flavour

Haddock is slightly sweeter and more distinctly flavoured. Cod is milder and more neutral.

Texture when cooked

Haddock is more delicate and falls apart more readily. Cod holds its shape.

Which for what

Cod where you need the fish to stay in one piece — a roasted loin, a curry. Haddock where flaking is fine or desirable — a pie, a chowder, a fishcake, and battered.

Battered fish

A regional preference rather than a quality judgement. Haddock is standard in Scotland and the north of England, cod in the south.

Sustainability

Both vary enormously by stock and fishing method. Check a current rating rather than assuming — this changes year to year and a page cannot keep up with it.

Smoked haddock, and the dye question

Smoked haddock is a different ingredient from fresh, not a stored version of it. It is salted and cold-smoked, so it comes out firm, savoury and strongly flavoured, and it is still raw — cold smoking does not cook.

The bright yellow smoked haddock in most supermarkets is dyed. The dye is cosmetic and does nothing for the flavour; it exists because consumers came to associate the colour with the product. Undyed smoked haddock is a pale straw colour, and it is generally better — the good ones are more lightly cured and more genuinely smoked rather than dyed to look it.

Finnan haddie is the traditional Scottish cold-smoked haddock, split and smoked on the bone. Arbroath smokies are different again: haddock hot-smoked over hardwood, so they come out cooked, and they carry protected geographical status.

Smoked haddock is salty. Poaching it in milk is traditional partly because the milk moderates the salt, and the resulting milk is then the base of the sauce — nothing is wasted.

Cooking it without wrecking it

Haddock is delicate and the failures are all about handling and heat.

• Poach it gently in milk with a bay leaf and peppercorns. The single best treatment for smoked haddock, and the milk becomes your sauce.
• Take it off the heat before it looks done. Fish carries on cooking in its own heat, and haddock in particular goes from moist to dry very quickly.
• Leave the skin on while cooking where you can. It holds the fillet together and comes off easily afterwards.
• Move it as little as possible. Turn it once, with a fish slice, supporting the whole fillet.
• Pat it dry and use a hot pan if you are frying it, so it releases from the pan rather than sticking and tearing.
• Bake it in a parcel with butter, lemon and herbs, which steams it gently and means it never has to be turned.
• Do not boil it. A bare tremble is enough for poaching.
• FoodHQ does not publish safe cooking temperatures or keeping times. Those are set by a food safety authority rather than by a cookery writer, and in the UK the Food Standards Agency is the one to consult.

What to make

• Kedgeree — smoked haddock, rice, curry spice, boiled egg and parsley. The great British smoked haddock dish.
• Cullen skink — smoked haddock, potato, onion and milk. Scotland's chowder, and one of the best soups there is.
• Fish pie, with a mixture of smoked and unsmoked fish, in a white sauce under mashed potato.
• Fishcakes, where haddock's tendency to flake is an advantage rather than a fault.
• Battered and fried, with chips.
• Poached with a poached egg on top and spinach, which is a complete meal in fifteen minutes.
• In a chowder — see chowder.
• Omelette Arnold Bennett — smoked haddock, cheese and cream folded into an open omelette and grilled. A Savoy Hotel dish and worth the effort.

Common questions