Why it works: Turbot and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 132 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Boiled Turbot
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turbot
Clean the turbot and rub it lightly with coarse sea salt.
Hang the fish in a cool place for 3-4 days.
Soak the turbot in spring water with salt for 1-2 hours before cooking.
Poach the fish
In a turbot kettle, place the fish on a plate and cover it with cold water.
Add a handful of coarse sea salt and ½ cup of vinegar.
Heat gently, skimming off any scum that rises.
When it begins to boil, add a little cold water and remove some hot water.
Repeat adding cold water until it boils again, then remove from heat if it is not very large.
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 + vinegartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turbot
- The main fish; its flesh firms and flakes when gently poached.
- Vinegar
- Adds mild acidity to the poaching water, brightening the flavour of the fish.
- Cold water
- Cooled back into the boiling water to stop it boiling hard and keep the fish cooking gently.
The step that matters
Keep the water just below a boil. Vigorous boiling agitates the fish and can break up and toughen the delicate flesh. Adding cold water when it starts to boil keeps the liquid at a gentle simmer so the fish cooks evenly.
“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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