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Steamed Halibut

A halibut fillet seasoned, steamed, and finished with a butter‑egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steamed Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Steam the fish

  1. Dust the halibut thickly with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Place it on a plate in a steamer or on cheesecloth in a colander over boiling water.

  3. Cover the colander and steam for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter until boiling, then remove from heat.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks, remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, ½ teaspoon of salt, a dash of pepper, and tarragon vinegar.

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. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + tarragontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main protein that turns flaky and moist as it steams.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently heat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and gives the sauce a smooth body.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks into the butter. Egg yolks thicken and emulsify best when the butter is hot but not boiling. Too much heat can scramble the yolks, so the sauce turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the tarragon

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

  1. Tarragonthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

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