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Turbot Au Gratin

A baked turbot topped with cream sauce, Parmesan, lemon, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turbot Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Flake the boiled fish with a spoon, avoiding cutting it.

  2. Stir the grated Parmesan cheese and lemon juice into the cream sauce.

  3. Mix the cream sauce with the fish flakes.

  4. Place the mixture in a shallow fireproof dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Melt the butter and steep the breadcrumbs in it, then sprinkle over the fish mixture.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together248 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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
Provides the flaked white fish that forms the body of the gratin.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, binding the fish flakes into a creamy filling.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce and the mild fish.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when toasted in butter and baked.
Butter
Carries fat into the breadcrumbs, promoting browning and a rich flavor.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, cream, sauce, parmesan cheese, butter):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Bananafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, cream, sauce, parmesan cheese, butter. 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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