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Turbot, Broiled

Turbot seasoned with pepper and salt, broiled and brushed with oil and vinegar or lemon juice, served with sauce and garnished with parsley and prawns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turbot, Broiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the turbot and dry it well.

  2. Place it on a dish and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  3. Pour oil and vinegar or lemon juice over the fish.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish in a double gridiron over a slow fire.

  2. Turn the fish every 5-6 minutes, brushing with the marinade each time.

  3. When the flesh easily separates from the bone, transfer to a hot dish.

  4. Pour white sauce, oyster sauce, or mussel sauce over the fish.

  5. Garnish with parsley and prawns.

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. Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together248 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Is the main fish that is cooked and flaked for the dish.
Oil
Carries the seasoning and keeps the fish moist while it broils.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity to the marinade, brightening the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Turning and basting the fish. Turning every 5-6 minutes and brushing with the marinade keeps the surface from drying and burning. A slow fire lets the flesh cook through before the outside browns too much.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, pepper, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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