Why it works: Turbot and lemon work together. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Plain Boiled Turbot or a L’anglaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose a medium-sized turbot, thick and plump, ensuring the backbone is free from color.
Wash the turbot, dry it, and rub it with lemon juice and a little salt.
Place the turbot in a kettle and cover it with spring water.
Poach
Add a handful of coarse sea salt and bring to a simmer.
Skim the water thoroughly, then reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil for about 30 minutes, depending on the size.
Carefully lift the turbot out with a drainer and transfer it to a serving dish.
Serve
Serve with two sauce-boats filled with Lobster and Dutch sauces.
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.
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Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turbot
- Forms the main body of the dish, its firm, thick flesh holds together during gentle poaching.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the mild, delicate flavour of the fish.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the poaching water so the fish is flavoured as it cooks.
The step that matters
Maintaining a gentle boil. Once the water is simmering, keep the heat low so it barely bubbles. A hard boil breaks the delicate flesh into flakes and toughens the proteins, while gentle heat cooks the fish evenly through to the bone.
“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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