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Halibut Steak a LA Flamande

Halibut steak baked with butter, onion, pepper, salt, parsley, lemon, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Halibut Steak a LA Flamande

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the halibut steak.

  2. Butter the bottom of a flat, fire-safe dish.

  3. Sprinkle grated onion, pepper, and salt over the bottom.

  4. Place the fish on top and brush it with the egg yolk.

  5. Sprinkle with more grated onion, pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

  6. Pour lemon juice over the fish and dot with bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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

  3. Serve Bechamel Sauce in a sauce-boat alongside.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

What each ingredient does

Halibut steak
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes flaky and moist when baked.
Egg yolk
Brushed over the fish to add richness and help the surface brown lightly in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the fish moist as it bakes.
Grated onion
Releases mild flavour and aroma into the fish as it cooks in the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, egg, lemon, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, lemon, parsley. 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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