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Fish Turbot

A baked fish dish made with turbot, cream sauce, bread crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Turbot

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 the fish

  1. Boil the fish in salted water for about 5 minutes until cooked through.

  2. Remove bones from the fish and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth and foamy.

  3. Gradually pour in the cold milk, stirring until the mixture thickens.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs on the bottom.

  2. Layer the fish, followed by a layer of cream dressing, repeating until all ingredients are used.

  3. Finish with a top layer of cream dressing, then sprinkle with bread crumbs and tiny bits of butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes until the top is browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White fish or halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming flaky as it cooks through.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and helps the topping brown.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a smooth, stable sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream dressing, adding moisture and richness.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp layer on top that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the cold milk. Flour thickens liquid only when its starch is evenly dispersed. Adding cold milk slowly while stirring prevents lumps, and the sauce thickens as it heats.

“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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