Name: Turbot a LA Creme Au Gratin
Ingredients: 1 turbot; 4 eggs; 4 ounces grated fresh Parmesan cheese; 1 cup cream Bechamel sauce; minionette pepper to taste; grated nutmeg to taste; lemon juice to taste

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 a LA Creme Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the turbot and drain it on a dish.
While it cools, prepare the cream Bechamel sauce and reduce it.
Add the yolks of the eggs, Parmesan cheese, minionette pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice to the sauce.
Cut the turbot into flakes and add them to the sauce, ensuring to include the delicate parts of the fish.
Stir everything together gently and shape it into a dome on the dish.

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.

Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).