Name: Turbot with Bechamel Sauce, Boiled
Ingredients: 1 very young turbot; 1 lemon; Salt to taste; Fresh parsley for garnish; Bechamel sauce

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 ↓

Turbot with Bechamel Sauce, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and dry the turbot, then rub it with lemon juice and a little salt.
In a turbot kettle, add enough water to cover the fish and a little salt.
Bring the water to a boil, then gently add the fish.
Boil the fish gently for 25 minutes, removing any scum that forms.
Carefully slide the fish onto a napkin, garnish with parsley, and serve with bechamel sauce.

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Parsley + saucetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,693 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turbot + parsleytop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together264 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).