Name: Turbot À LA Provençale
Ingredients: 1 medium turbot (or other firm white fish); coarse sea salt; 1 lemon; butter for greasing the dish

Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Turbot À LA Provençale

Ingredients

1 medium turbot (or other firm white fish)
coarse sea salt
1 lemon
butter for greasing the dish

Directions

Clean the turbot by rubbing it with coarse sea salt and washing it in several changes of water.
Dry the fish inside and out, then rub the white side with a cut lemon.
Remove any unsightly spots with a mixture of salt and lemon juice.
Grease a baking dish with butter.
Flake the cooked fish, removing all skin and bones, and place it in the greased 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.

Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).