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Turbot Pie

A savory pie made with parboiled turbot, herbs, eggs, gravy, and pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Turbot Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Parboil the turbot and cut the meat into convenient pieces.

  2. Season the pieces with pepper, coarse sea salt, cloves, and nutmeg.

  3. Roll the pieces in finely minced parsley, chives, and sweet basil.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the seasoned pieces in a pie dish with yolks of eggs and some gravy.

  2. Dot with butter, cover with a pie crust, and bake in a moderate oven (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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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 pie, setting into flaky pieces when parboiled and baked.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the filling and enrich it, helping it set into a tender, cohesive texture.
Gravy
Adds moisture so the fish stays juicy under the crust.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the crust brown.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling, trapping steam and moisture while the pie bakes.

The step that matters

Parboil the turbot gently. Parboiling only partly cooks the fish, so it can finish baking without drying out. Overcooking it first leaves the flesh dry and crumbly once it goes into the oven.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, pepper, clove, nutmeg, parsley, basil, egg):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, pepper, clove, nutmeg, parsley, basil, egg. 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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