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Baked Halibut

Baked halibut seasoned with salt, butter, ketchup, lemon, and browned flour, served in a sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Halibut

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the halibut in saltwater for 2 hours.

  2. Wipe the fish dry and score the skin.

  3. Place the halibut in a baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour, basting often with melted butter and water.

  2. Check for doneness by inserting a fork; it should penetrate easily and the fish should be browned.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the dripping pan, combine the gravy with a little boiling water.

  2. If needed, stir in ketchup, lemon juice, and thicken with browned flour mixed with cold water.

  3. Boil once and serve in a sauceboat.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the fish brown while basting.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the fish with a smooth body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Checking doneness with a fork. Fish keeps cooking from residual heat and turns dry and firm if overbaked. It is done when a fork slides in easily and the flesh flakes.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ketchup, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Red currantfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ketchup, flour. 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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