Home › Breakfast › Creamed Finnan Haddie
Creamed Finnan Haddie
1 pound finnan haddie 2 tablespoons Mazola 2 tablespoons Argo or Kingsford's Cornstarch 1/3 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon paprika Few drops onion juice 1 teaspoon minced parsley (optional) 1 pint milk Pour boiling water over the finnan haddie, let stand two or three minutes, drain and flake. Add the Mazola, then the cornstarch and seasonings and gradually stir in the milk. When boiling, add the parsley or onion juice and serve on toast, split Tea Biscuit, boiled rice or with boiled or baked potatoes.
A corn-products promotional formula for creamed smoked haddock, written when finnan haddie was a standard breakfast fish. Two things need attention: the brand names, and the fact that the fish here is barely cooked.
- Finnan haddieCold-smoked, bone-in haddock, salted before smoking. Sold in fishmongers and some supermarket smoked-fish cases; look for pale gold, undyed fillets rather than the bright orange dyed sort. One pound of fillet is right for this quantity of sauce.
- Mazola and ArgoMazola is corn oil, a product of the corn-refining company behind this book. Any neutral oil works, though 2 tablespoons of butter gives a better breakfast sauce. Argo and Kingsford's are simply cornstarch.
- Cook the fish properlyA two-minute steep in boiling water freshens and loosens the flesh rather than cooking it; the fish is then brought to a boil in the sauce, which does heat it through. Letting the flaked fish simmer in the finished sauce for several minutes rather than serving the moment it boils gives a more thoroughly cooked, better-flavoured result.
- Thickening ratio2 tablespoons cornstarch to 1 pint milk gives a thick, coating sauce that will set further off the heat. Cornstarch needs to boil briefly to lose its raw taste and reach full thickness, then should not be boiled hard or stirred aggressively afterward, or it thins again.
- Mixing orderAs written, the starch goes into the fish and oil and the milk is added gradually to that. Whisking the cornstarch into a few tablespoons of the cold milk first is more reliable and avoids lumps.
- SaltThe 1/3 teaspoon assumes lightly cured fish. Modern finnan haddie varies a great deal in saltiness; taste after the sauce thickens and salt at the end.
- Onion juiceGrate a peeled onion on the fine side of a box grater and use the liquid that collects, or press grated onion in a sieve. A pinch of grated onion itself is a fair substitute.
- YieldServes four over toast, biscuits or rice.
Finnan haddie is usually said to take its name from Findon, a fishing village south of Aberdeen, though Findhorn in Moray has also been claimed; the cure is associated with the Scottish northeast coast, where split haddock were salted and smoked. By the early twentieth century smoked haddock in cream sauce was a familiar hotel and household breakfast dish on both sides of the Atlantic, alongside kedgeree and creamed codfish. Its appearance here, thickened with Argo cornstarch and enriched with Mazola rather than the traditional butter and flour, marks the book for what it is: a recipe collection issued by the makers of those corn products, demonstrating that a corn-based pantry could stand in for the older dairy-and-wheat kitchen.