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Turbot

A baked turbot served with a sauce of anchovy essence, melted butter, and thick cream, garnished with capers or gherkins and new potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the turbot

  1. Boil the turbot in the usual way.

  2. Carefully place the boiled turbot on a hot dish.

Make the sauce

  1. Flavor the melted butter with the essence of anchovies and add the thick cream.

  2. Mix the sauce over the fire until nearly boiling.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the fish.

  2. Sprinkle chopped capers or gherkins on top.

  3. Garnish with a border of new potatoes and serve very hot.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Capers + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Turbot + caperstop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main body of the dish, carrying the sauce as the flesh cooks through.
Melted butter
Provides richness and a smooth, fatty base that carries the anchovy flavor.
Essence of anchovies
Adds a salty, savory depth that sharpens the otherwise mild butter and cream.
Thick cream
Adds body and moisture, helping the sauce become smooth and coating.
Capers or gherkins
Adds a sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce until nearly boiling. Cream can curdle or separate if it boils hard, so it should be heated gently and stirred until just short of boiling to stay smooth.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, butter, cream, capers):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, cream, capers. 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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