Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Filleted Turbot
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dry the fillets and season with salt and pepper.
Cook
Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the fillets side by side.
Cook over medium heat for a few minutes, then turn them over when half cooked.
Cook for about 10 minutes total.
Serve
Drain on kitchen paper and arrange in a circle on a dish.
Pour shrimp sauce over the fillets and garnish with fried parsley in the center.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
-
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 fillets
- Form the main body of the dish, cooking to a moist, flaky texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the fish brown lightly in the pan.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich fish and butter.
The step that matters
Turning the fillets at half cooked. Fish proteins set and firm as they heat, so turning once at the midway point browns both sides evenly without tearing the delicate flesh. Overcooking dries it out and makes it flake 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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