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Turbot Au Court Bouillon

A turbot simmered in a seasoned broth of water, salt, herbs, and onion, served with caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turbot Au Court Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the court bouillon

  1. Boil enough water to cover the fish with salt, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, onion, and garlic.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Let the broth settle.

  4. Pour off the clear liquid.

Poach the turbot

  1. Rub the turbot with lemon juice.

  2. Simmer the turbot in the prepared court bouillon for 1 hour without boiling.

  3. Cover the kettle with a buttered sheet of paper to keep the fish white.

  4. Drain the turbot.

Serve

  1. Serve the turbot on a napkin surrounded by parsley, with caper sauce in a tureen.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot (in the method)
The main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it gently poaches in the broth.
Lemon juice
Acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish and helps keep its colour pale.
Butter
Fat that enriches the surface of the fish when laid over it as a buttered paper cover.
Caper sauce
Tangy, salty sauce that contrasts with the mild, delicate flesh of the poached fish.

The step that matters

Simmer the turbot without boiling. Boiling toughens and breaks up delicate fish proteins, making the flesh dry and ragged. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps it tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, thyme, onion, garlic, lemon, butter, sauce):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, thyme, onion, garlic, lemon, butter, sauce. 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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