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Turbot, with White Sauce

A fish dish of turbot simmered with herbs, vinegar, wine, and a sauce of butter, anchovies, capers, and leeks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,768 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Turbot, with White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the turbot

  1. In a stewing pan, place the sliced onion, thyme, basil, and other herbs.

  2. Add the small turbot on top and sprinkle with more herbs, salt, pepper, and the cut leek.

  3. Cover the fish with equal parts vinegar and white wine.

  4. Boil over moderate heat until the fish is cooked through.

Make the white sauce

  1. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate pan.

  2. Add the boned anchovies, capers, shredded leeks, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a little vinegar, and water.

  3. Stir constantly until heated through and slightly thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve the turbot on a plate and pour the sauce 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. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the butter.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid, flavouring the fish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid and sauce, balancing the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Stir constantly while the sauce heats. Butter emulsified with liquid can separate or scorch if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth and lightly thickened rather than broken or grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, thyme, basil, pepper, leek, vinegar, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, thyme, basil, pepper, leek, vinegar, white wine. 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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