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Fish Turbot

A baked fish casserole with oysters, cream sauce, celery, breadcrumbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil a 5-pound piece of any firm fish not quite done.

  2. Take the fish out and pick all bones out of it.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a cream sauce for the fish.

  2. Put the hearts of 1 pint of oysters into the cream sauce.

  3. Add 1/2 pint milk, 2 tablespoonfuls flour, 1 tablespoonful butter, and 2 yolks of eggs to the sauce. Let all boil together.

  4. Put the fish in the sauce.

  5. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

  6. Chop a stalk of celery very fine and put it into the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Put into a pudding-dish.

  2. Sift some breadcrumbs over the sauce and add small bits of butter.

  3. Put in oven and let bake 3/4 hour.

  4. Garnish dish with fried oysters or fried potatoes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

877Calories
37 gProtein
29 gFat
115 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Fish (in the method)
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky as it cooks in the sauce.
Oysters
Adds savory seafood flavor and a little richness to the sauce.
Milk
Provides the liquid that forms the base of the cream sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it boils, giving it a creamy body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and help thicken it as it heats.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor, and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Letting the sauce boil with the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken gently with heat but can curdle or turn grainy if the sauce boils too hard. Flour needs to cook through at a simmer to lose its raw taste and thicken fully, so keep the heat controlled while it boils together.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, milk, flour, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, milk, flour, butter, egg, pepper. 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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