Why it works: Turbot and lemon work together. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Turbot Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the turbot across in the thickest part on the underside.
Rub the upper part with lemon.
Cook
Place the turbot in a kettle with cold spring water and plenty of coarse sea salt.
Bring to a boil over high heat, then skim off any foam.
Reduce heat and simmer gently until cooked through.
Serve
Serve with lobster sauce in a boat.
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.
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Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turbot
- Is the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the cooking water so the fish is flavoured as it poaches.
The step that matters
Simmer gently after boiling. Once the water reaches a boil, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the flesh tender. A hard boil toughens fish proteins and breaks the flesh apart.
“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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