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To Boil Turbot

Boiled turbot seasoned with salt and lemon, garnished with parsley, lemon slices, horseradish, and lobster-coral.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Boil Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the turbot in salt and water to remove slime.

  2. Score the skin of the back deeply to prevent cracking.

  3. Place the fish on a fish strainer with the back facing down.

Poach

  1. Fill a clean fish kettle with cold water and add a handful of salt.

  2. Bring the water to a gentle boil, skimming carefully.

  3. Simmer the fish for 25 to 30 minutes without boiling violently.

  4. For a better appearance, wrap a cloth around the fish and secure it under the strainer.

Serve

  1. Serve with sauces like lobster sauce, melted butter, and garnish with parsley, lemon slices, and horseradish.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Turbot + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Parsley + horseradishtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lemon + horseradishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turbot + horseradishtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together70 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
The main protein; its firm, flaky flesh holds together when gently poached.

The step that matters

Simmer without boiling violently. A vigorous boil breaks up the delicate flesh and can crack the skin. A gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly and keeps it intact.

“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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