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Turbot a LA Maitre d’Hotel

A Turbot fish cooked in champagne and butter, served with a velouté sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 a LA Maitre d’Hotel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Make a 3-inch incision down the back of the Turbot and remove 3 or 4 vertebrae.

  2. Rub the fish on both sides with coarse sea salt, let it sit for 1 hour, then wash off the salt.

  3. Tie the fish into shape.

Poach the fish

  1. Place the fish on a well-buttered strainer in a fish kettle.

  2. Add 1 lb of butter and 1 quart of champagne.

  3. Season the fish with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg.

  4. Place sliced lemons, chopped shallots and minced parsley over the fish.

  5. Cover the kettle and set it on the fire.

  6. Boil while basting frequently, then reduce heat to low.

  7. Let it boil slowly for about 2 hours, basting as needed.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the fish from the kettle.

  2. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan.

  3. Mix in 4 oz of butter rubbed into 2 tablespoons of flour and stir until thickened.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of reduced veloute sauce and a small quantity of fowl glaze.

  5. Boil for 1-2 minutes.

  6. Stir in the yolks of 4 eggs.

  7. Place the Turbot on a napkin on a dish and garnish with parsley.

  8. Serve with the sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
The main fish, whose firm flesh holds its shape through long, gentle poaching.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and enriches the sauce as it is whisked in.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce gently as they are stirred in off the boil.
Champagne
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid, flavouring the fish and sauce.
Lemons
Add acidity and fresh aroma that brighten the fish and the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the boil. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the sauce boils after they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy, so the sauce should be kept hot but not boiling.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, butter, champagne, pepper, lemon, shallot, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, champagne, pepper, lemon, shallot, parsley. 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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