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Boiling Fish

A turbot boiled with salt, vinegar, horseradish, and sweet herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and horseradish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiling Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the poaching liquid

  1. Fill a large kettle with enough water to cover the fish.

  2. Add salt, vinegar, horseradish, and sweet herbs to the water.

  3. Boil the mixture for some time to infuse the flavors.

  4. Remove the water and let it cool completely.

Poach the turbot

  1. Score the turbot through the skin on the white side.

  2. Place the fish in the kettle, dark side down.

  3. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle boil.

  4. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.

  5. Boil the turbot for about 20 minutes.

Drain and serve

  1. Drain the fish well and place it on a napkin over a fish drainer.

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. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Horseradish + turbottop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Vinegar + turbottop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Is the main protein, whose delicate flesh turns firm and flaky as it cooks gently in liquid.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the mild flavor of the fish and the poaching liquid.
Horseradish
Adds a pungent, sharp aroma that flavors the poaching liquid.
Sweet herbs
Add gentle aromatic flavor to the poaching liquid as it infuses.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle boil. A hard, rolling boil can break up the delicate fish and make the liquid cloudy. Skimming off the foam keeps the surface clear and stops residue from clinging to the fish.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, turbot):

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Horseradishthe original
  4. Mustardfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, turbot. 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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