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Turbot, a LA Creme Au Gratin

Boned, boiled fish layered with a thick milk and egg sauce, topped with crumbs and Parmesan, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 27 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turbot, a LA Creme Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil a fresh cod fish or trout or white fish weighing from four to five pounds.

  2. Pick out all the bones and skin.

  3. Season lightly with white pepper and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Take one quart of milk and mix smoothly in it one fourth pound of flour.

  2. Put in five very small onions, sliced, a sprig of thyme (or a tablespoonful of pressed thyme tied in a muslin rag), and a bunch of parsley.

  3. Add a little grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of salt and one fourth teaspoonful of white pepper or a pinch of red pepper.

  4. Place over a quick fire in double boiler and stir constantly till it forms a thick paste.

  5. Take it off and stir in butter the size of an egg and the yolks of two eggs.

  6. Mix all together and pass through a sieve.

Bake and serve

  1. Put a layer of sauce into a baking dish or shell, add a layer of fish and a layer of sauce alternately till both are used.

  2. Sprinkle top of dish or shells with grated bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

  3. Put into a moderate warm oven and bake half an hour for dish, but only fifteen minutes for shells.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1081Calories
60 gProtein
36 gFat
128 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Lobster100g cooked98
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + thymetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as the flour cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce with fat and help it set and bind when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce and helps it feel smooth.
Fish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, layered with the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the sauce to a thick paste. Flour must be cooked with the milk over steady heat while stirring constantly, or it stays pasty and lumpy. Stirring prevents scorching and lumps, so the sauce thickens evenly before the egg yolks are added.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, oyster, cream, onion, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, oyster, cream, onion, thyme, parsley. 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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