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Turbot

A turbot fillet served with a sauce of anchovy essence, melted butter, and thick cream, garnished with capers or gherkins and new potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Boil the turbot in the usual way.

  2. Carefully place it on a hot dish without a napkin.

Make the sauce

  1. Flavour the melted butter with the essence of anchovies and add the thick cream.

  2. Mix the sauce over the fire until nearly boiling, then pour it over the fish.

Finish and serve

  1. Sprinkle chopped capers or gherkins on top and garnish with new potatoes.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Capers + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Turbot + caperstop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together47 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 firm, flaky white fish that forms the main body of the dish.
Melted butter
Carries the flavour and adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Essence of anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the butter sauce.
Thick cream
Adds body and richness, thickening the sauce slightly and softening its flavour.
Capers or gherkins
Add a sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the rich butter and cream.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce until nearly boiling. Cream and butter emulsion can separate or curdle if overheated, so the sauce should be warmed just until nearly boiling and kept smooth before pouring over the fish.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, cream, capers. 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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