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Fish Turbot

A creamy fish turbot dish with mushrooms, egg yolk, and parsley, baked in shells or a dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Make the sauce

  1. In a hot saucepan, rub together the butter and flour.

  2. Stir in the milk or cream and bring to a boil.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the chopped fish, mushrooms, salt, and pepper.

  2. Heat over steam.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and chopped parsley.

  4. Fill shells with the mixture or place in a large dish.

  5. If desired, sprinkle with bread crumbs and brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C).

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while the flour cooks into a roux.
Flour
Thickens the milk or cream into a smooth, binding sauce.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it body and richness.
Cold boiled fish
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the dish.
Egg yolk
Enriches and sets the sauce gently, adding richness and binding.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if the mixture boils. Keep the heat low over steam so the sauce stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

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