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Turbot Salad

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Turbot Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove the flesh from the cooked turbot, discarding skin and bones. Cut the flesh into 1.5-inch square pieces.

  2. Season the turbot pieces with pepper, coarse sea salt, olive oil, and vinegar. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

  3. Wash and dry the lettuces thoroughly. Cut them into ½-inch wide pieces and leave in a cool place until needed.

  4. In a bowl, beat the raw egg yolks for 2-3 minutes. Mix in the mustard, ½ teaspoon salt, and a little white pepper.

  5. Gradually add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, beating well after each addition. Stir in 1 teaspoon of French vinegar and a few drops of tarragon vinegar.

  6. Continue adding oil and vinegar in the same proportions until the sauce reaches a thick custard-like consistency. Refrigerate until needed.

  7. To serve, layer the lettuce at the bottom of a dish, add a layer of turbot, and repeat until all ingredients are used.

  8. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, beetroot, olives, and anchovies. Pour the sauce over the salad just before serving, adding a little sauce between layers of fish.

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. Lettuce + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, pepper, olive, vinegar, lettuce, egg, mustard):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, pepper, olive, vinegar, lettuce, egg, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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