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Turbot, a LA Franqaise

A turbot served with a thick caper sauce and small new potatoes, garnished with capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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, a LA Franqaise

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the turbot

  1. Boil the turbot until cooked through.

Dress and serve

  1. Place the turbot on a serving dish without a napkin.

  2. Dress the fish with a thick caper sauce.

  3. Create a border around the fish with small new potatoes.

  4. Sprinkle a few capers over the fish before serving.

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. Potato + caperstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Turbot + caperstop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Sauce + potatotop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,073 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
Provides the firm, flaky white flesh that forms the centrepiece of the dish.
Thick caper sauce
Adds moisture and a tangy, briny flavour that balances the mild fish.
Small new potatoes
Their soft, mild starch frames the fish and adds substance to the plate.
Capers
Add acidity and salty brightness that lift the mild flavour of the fish.

The step that matters

Boil the turbot until cooked through. Overcooked fish loses moisture and turns dry and stringy, while undercooked flesh stays translucent and unset near the bone. Checking that it is just opaque and flakes easily keeps the texture tender.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, sauce, capers. 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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