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Boiling Fish

A boiled turbot seasoned with salt, vinegar, herbs, wine, butter, anchovies, capers, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Boiling Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the turbot thoroughly.

  2. Rub some coarse sea salt over the fish to firm it up.

  3. Place the fish belly up in a fish plate and cover tightly with a cloth.

Boil

  1. Ensure the water is boiling before adding the fish.

  2. Boil gently in hard water with plenty of salt and vinegar, skimming to prevent discoloration.

  3. Once cooked, carefully remove the fish and drain it.

Serve

  1. Remove the cloth and transfer the fish to a serving dish without breaking it.

  2. Top with oyster patties or fried oysters, and serve with lobster or gravy sauce in boats, garnished with crispy parsley and pickles.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole so the flesh holds together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the dish a rounded, savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the water gently boiling. Fish added to water that is not yet boiling cooks unevenly, while a vigorous boil breaks up the delicate flesh. A steady, gentle simmer cooks the fish through while keeping it intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, vinegar, thyme, parsley, chive, basil, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, vinegar, thyme, parsley, chive, basil, white wine. 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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