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Turbot a LA Creme

A baked turbot dish with a cream sauce made from sweet milk, butter, and flour, topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colbrath, M. Tarbox · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Turbot a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Remove all skin and bones from the boiled turbot and flake the fish.

  2. Scald a pint of sweet milk.

  3. Mix butter the size of an egg with a teaspoonful of flour.

  4. Stir this mixture smoothly into the hot milk and let it thicken.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a fire-proof earthen dish.

  2. Layer the fish and dressing alternately in the dish, starting with fish and ending with dressing.

  3. Sprinkle sifted bread crumbs over the whole.

  4. Bake for half an hour, or according to the size.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

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

By Colbrath, M. Tarbox. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the flaky fish layers.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce that moistens the layers.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and combines with the flour to form a thickening roux.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour into the hot milk. Adding the flour mixture smoothly helps prevent lumps, because the starch must be dispersed before it swells and thickens the liquid evenly.

“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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