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Halibut, Sauce Supreme

Halibut pieces soaked in madeira or sherry, cooked in butter, then baked and served with sauce supreme.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Halibut, Sauce Supreme

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the halibut in madeira or sherry for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add salt and pepper to the melted butter.

  2. Add the halibut to the saucepan and cook for a few moments.

  3. Transfer the halibut to a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  4. Arrange the fish on a dish and pour sauce supreme over it.

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. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, with a firm texture that holds its shape when cooked.
Madeira or sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a little sweetness while the fish soaks.
Butter
Carries heat evenly through the pan and adds richness and moisture to the fish.

The step that matters

Transfer the halibut to a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes. Halibut is lean and dries out quickly, so it should be removed as soon as it turns opaque and flakes easily. Overbaking toughens the proteins and squeezes out moisture.

“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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