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Fish Turbot

A baked turbot dish with a creamy milk and herb sauce, topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Poach the fish

  1. Place the fish in cold water and boil for 2 minutes until done.

  2. Remove the fish and free it from bones.

Make the dressing

  1. Boil the milk, onion, thyme, and parsley over water for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the mixture through a colander.

  3. Make a smooth paste with the flour and cold water.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks and butter, and cook until thick.

Bake and serve

  1. In a baking dish, layer the fish with the dressing.

  2. Finish with dressing on top and a thick layer of cracker crumbs.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  4. Serve in the baking dish, garnished with parsley and sliced lemon.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the dish, flaking into tender pieces when cooked.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the dressing, giving it a soft, creamy body.
Flour
Thickens the dressing as its starch swells in the liquid.
Eggs (yolks only)
Set with gentle heat to thicken the dressing and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the dressing.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the dressing until thick. Egg yolks thicken at moderate heat but can curdle or turn grainy if the dressing boils hard. Keep the heat gentle and stir so the flour paste and yolks stay smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, thyme, parsley, flour, egg, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, thyme, parsley, flour, egg, butter. 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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