Skip to main content
Main

Boiled Turbot

A boiled turbot served with a lobster sauce made from butter, lobster spawn, meat, and anchovy liquor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Turbot and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 110 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Boiled Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean the turbot and rub it lightly with coarse sea salt.

  2. Hang it in a cool place for 3-4 days.

  3. Soak the fish in spring water with salt for 1-2 hours before cooking.

  4. Change the water 5-6 times if it smells off.

Cook

  1. Place the turbot in a kettle, cover with cold water, and add a handful of salt and ½ cup of vinegar.

  2. Heat gently, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. When it boils, add a little cold water to reduce the heat.

  4. Remove from heat when it is just cooked through, as fish should not boil vigorously.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For serving, prepare a lobster sauce by melting fresh butter, adding lobster spawn and chopped meat, and a spoonful of anchovy liquor.

  2. Boil briefly.

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. Turbot + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together110 recipes

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

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Turbot + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + lobstertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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 when gently poached.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the lobster sauce.
Lobster spawn
Thickens the sauce as it heats and gives it a rich, savoury flavour.
Anchovy liquor
Adds a salty, savoury depth that seasons the lobster sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the water below a boil. Vigorous boiling toughens fish proteins and breaks the flesh apart, so the fish should be heated gently and removed once just cooked through.

“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.

More boiled turbot recipes

with Lobster Sauce 4Plain 3 See all 114 →

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes