Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Turbot

A stew of turbot with butter, wine, herbs, mushrooms, cream, and Neapolitan sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Stewed Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Place the turbot in a stewpan with butter, wine, and herbs.

  2. Add water or fish stock.

  3. Sprinkle pepper and salt.

  4. Cover with buttered paper.

  5. Cook slowly in the oven at 300°F (150°C) or on the hob until the fish is tender.

  6. Remove the fish and keep it warm.

Make the sauce

  1. Slice the mushrooms.

  2. Add the sliced mushrooms to the fish liquid.

  3. Simmer until done.

  4. Remove the herbs.

  5. Skim the liquid.

  6. Add cream and Neapolitan sauce.

  7. Heat again.

  8. Pour 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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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, cooked gently until tender and firm rather than falling apart.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the poaching liquid.
Marsala or port wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the cooking liquid.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and body to the sauce as they simmer.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Neapolitan sauce
Adds tomato flavour, acidity and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the fish slowly. Gentle heat keeps the delicate fish flesh moist and tender. High heat tightens the proteins and makes it dry and tough. Cream added to a boiling sauce can also curdle, so reheat gently.

“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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes