Name: Gratia of Fillets of Turbot
Ingredients: 1 inch thick slices of bread; 1 egg; 2 tablespoons smooth brown sauce; ¼ pound butter; thick cream; coarse sea salt; bread crumbs

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gratia of Fillets of Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Cut bread into 1-inch wide and ¼-inch thick slices.
Dip bread slices into beaten egg.
Stick the slices around the edge of a dish.
Pour 1-2 tablespoons of smooth brown sauce into the center.
Mix ¼ pound of butter with more brown sauce on the stove without boiling.
Add thick cream and season the sauce well.
Add scallops to the sauce and pour into the dish.
Level the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
Heat a ladle, add butter, and baste the scallops.
Add another layer of bread crumbs and baste again.
Brown the dish under a salamander until golden.
Remove the initial bread border and replace with fried bread for garnish.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Gratia of Fillets of Turbot