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Fish Turbot

A baked fish dish made with milk, flour, eggs, butter, onion or parsley, and salmon or minced fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Turbot

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Thicken the milk with flour over low heat.

  2. Once cool, stir in the beaten eggs.

Add the fish and seasoning

  1. If using white fish, add butter; if using salmon, omit butter.

  2. Season with onion or parsley.

  3. Add the salmon or minced fish and mix well.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Fish + salmontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

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

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

Milk
Forms the thickened base that holds the mixture together and keeps it moist.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that gives the turbot body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when baked, giving a firm, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture when using white fish, which is otherwise lean.
Salmon or minced fish
Provides the main fish flavor and protein that forms the body of the dish.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk with flour over low heat. Flour must be cooked gently with the milk so it swells and thickens evenly; high heat can scorch the milk or leave lumps, and the base then will not set smoothly around the eggs.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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