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Broiled Turbot

A fish dish where a turbot is marinated, broiled, and served with capers and butter or Dutch sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and capers are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,088 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Broiled Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Marinate the turbot in sweet oil, salt, and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil slowly over a clear fire.

  2. Serve with chopped capers and melted butter or Dutch 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. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turbot + caperstop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Capers + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to firm, flaky flesh under heat.
Sweet oil
Coats the fish during marinating, helping keep its surface moist while broiling.
Chopped capers
Adds a sharp, acidic bite that contrasts with the rich, mild fish.
Melted butter or dutch sauce
Adds richness and fat that complements the lean fish.

The step that matters

Broil slowly over a clear fire. Broiling too fast or too close to intense heat can scorch the outside before the thick flesh cooks through. A steady, moderate heat cooks the fish evenly while keeping it moist and tender.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, pepper, butter. 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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