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Turbot a LA Creme

A baked dish of flaked turbot in a creamy sauce with onions, parsley, butter, and topped with crackers and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Turbot a LA Creme

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. Boil the fish with plenty of coarse sea salt until the skin slips off.

  2. Once cool, flake the fish, discarding the bones and skin.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the milk or cream and stir in the flour until smooth.

  2. Add the onion and parsley tied in a cheesecloth bag to the milk mixture.

  3. Remove the bag after boiling, then melt the butter and mix it with the cream.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer the flaked fish and sauce alternately until full, finishing with sauce on top.

  2. Sprinkle rolled crackers and grated cheese over the top.

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

  4. Garnish with parsley, sliced boiled eggs, and lemon slices before serving hot with mayonnaise sauce.

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

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  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

Turbot fish
Forms the flaked, tender main body of the dish.
Rich milk or cream
Makes the sauce rich and creamy, carrying moisture through the bake.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that holds the fish together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, improving flavor and mouthfeel of the sauce.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top during baking, adding savory flavor and color.
Rolled crackers
Forms a crisp, golden crust over the top during baking.

The step that matters

Make the sauce smooth before adding the fish. Flour stirred into boiling milk can clump if not whisked in steadily; lumps stay in the sauce and make the texture grainy. A smooth, well-thickened sauce binds the flaked fish layers.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, fish, milk, flour, onion, butter, cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, fish, milk, flour, onion, butter, cheese. 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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