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Baked Halibut

Baked halibut served with a butter and Worcestershire gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the halibut in a strong saltwater solution for at least 1 hour.

  2. Wipe the fish, then cut the skin on top in a criss-cross pattern, reaching the flesh.

Bake and baste

  1. Place the fish in a dripping pan and pour boiling water over it.

  2. Cook for 12 minutes per pound, basting often with a mixture of melted butter and lemon juice.

  3. Check for doneness by inserting a fork into the thickest part; it should penetrate easily.

  4. Remove the fish and keep it warm.

Make the gravy

  1. For the gravy, add Worcestershire sauce and butter mixed with browned flour to the drippings.

  2. If the gravy is too thick, add a little boiling water, boil, and strain into a sauceboat.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in steam and drippings until flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour when basted over the fish and into the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the basting mixture and balances the richness of the butter.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour to the drippings.

The step that matters

Checking doneness with a fork. Halibut is lean and dries out quickly once it passes flaky. Testing the thickest part with a fork, rather than relying only on the timed estimate, helps keep it moist.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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