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Halibut Collops, Baked

Baked halibut collops with a milk and flour sauce, seasoned with salt, pepper, ginger, onions, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Halibut Collops, Baked

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sprinkle the halibut slices with salt, pepper, ginger, and onions or herbs.

  3. Place the seasoned halibut in a pie dish and add the dripping or fat.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, boil the flour with the milk until smooth.

  2. Add the clove-studded onion to the milk for flavor, if using.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the halibut in the pie dish.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve the fish with the sauce, garnished with parsley.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming flaky and tender as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the fish.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Dripping or fat
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay juicy in the oven.

The step that matters

Boiling the flour with the milk until smooth. Flour must be fully mixed and heated so its starch thickens the milk evenly. Lumps stay raw-tasting and the sauce will not coat the fish properly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, ginger, flour, milk, clove, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, ginger, flour, milk, clove, parsley. 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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