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Turbot a LA Creme for Ten People

A baked turbot dish with a creamy sauce, onions, parsley, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turbot a LA Creme for Ten People

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.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil or bake the fish, then remove the bones and shred the fish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, combine the milk, cream, chopped onions, and parsley. Bring to a boil.

  2. Remove the onions.

  3. Stir in the flour, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Layer in some of the sauce, followed by the shredded fish. Top with the remaining sauce.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  4. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

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

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

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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

Fish
Forms the body of the dish, providing the flaky substance that the sauce coats.
Flour
Thickens the milk and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a mild, soft body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, making the sauce smoother and more velvety.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Onions
Flavour the sauce as it simmers, then are removed before assembly.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour after the sauce has come to a boil. Flour must be fully incorporated into the hot liquid, or it forms lumps instead of a smooth, evenly thickened sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, fish, pepper, cream, bread, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, fish, pepper, cream, bread, 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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