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Turbot

A whole turbot seasoned and boiled, served with a sauce of butter, anchovies, capers, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Rub the fish with some salt to firm it up.

  2. Place the fish in a fish plate belly side up and cover tightly with a cloth.

Poach the fish

  1. Boil water in a pot, adding plenty of salt and vinegar.

  2. Once the water is boiling, add the fish and boil gently, skimming the surface to prevent discoloration.

  3. When cooked, carefully remove the fish and drain it.

  4. Remove the cloth and gently transfer the fish to a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, combine butter, anchovies, capers, chives, pepper, salt, nutmeg, flour, vinegar, and a little water in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the sauce while shaking it until well mixed, then pour it over the fish.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.
Capers
Contribute a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the butter.
Flour
Thickens the butter sauce so it coats the fish rather than pooling.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the sauce and to the poaching water, helping keep the fish firm.

The step that matters

Skimming the poaching water. Keeping the water at a gentle boil and skimming the surface prevents the fish from clouding or discolouring and keeps its flesh tender rather than tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, vinegar, thyme, parsley, white wine, pepper, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, vinegar, thyme, parsley, white wine, pepper, butter. 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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