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Turbot, with Anchovy Cream

A turbot fillet topped with a sauce of anchovy essence, butter, and cream, garnished with gherkins, capers, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turbot, with Anchovy Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the turbot

  1. Boil the turbot until cooked through.

  2. Lay the cooked turbot on a hot dish without a napkin.

Make the anchovy cream

  1. Stir the essence of anchovies into the melted butter.

  2. Add the cream to the mixture.

  3. Heat the mixture until nearly boiling.

Dress and serve

  1. Pour the heated mixture over the turbot.

  2. Sprinkle the chopped gherkins over the fish.

  3. Sprinkle the capers over the fish.

  4. Surround the turbot with a border of well-boiled new kidney potatoes.

  5. Garnish the outer edge with parsley before serving.

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. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Capers + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the firm, flaky fish that is the main body of the dish.
Plain melted butter
Carries the anchovy flavour and adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Essence of anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth that seasons the butter sauce.
Rich cream
Thickens the sauce slightly and adds richness and a softer mouthfeel.
Pickled gherkins
Add sharp acidity that cuts through the rich butter and cream.
Capers
Add a briny, sharp bite that balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the anchovy cream. Bring the mixture only until nearly boiling. Cream and butter can split or turn grainy if they boil hard, so a gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, butter, cream, capers, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, cream, capers, 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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