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To Bake a Turbot-Turbot H LA Parisienne

A baked turbot seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, salt, parsley, butter, flour, breadcrumbs, and sherry, served with lemon and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Bake a Turbot-Turbot H LA Parisienne

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub an earthenware pan with butter.

  3. Mix black pepper, nutmeg, salt, and parsley.

  4. Sprinkle half of the mixture over the pan.

  5. Place the turbot in the pan.

  6. Sprinkle the remaining seasoning on top of the fish.

  7. Dot the fish with 4 ounces of butter.

  8. Dredge the fish with flour and fine bread-crumbs.

  9. Pour the sherry or Madeira over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on size.

  2. Carefully transfer the fish to a serving dish.

  3. Pour the baking liquid into a saucepan.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of flour rubbed smooth in butter to thicken.

  5. Serve the sauce in a sauce-tureen.

  6. Garnish with sliced lemon and horseradish.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Is the main fish, cooked whole in the pan so it stays moist under the crumbs and wine.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the fish and enriching the sauce as it bakes.
Sherry or madeira
Adds aroma and acidity, and the baking liquid becomes the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the baking liquid into a sauce and helps the crumb coating form a crust.
Fine bread-crumbs
Form a dry crust on the fish that helps seal in moisture and adds light browning.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour rubbed in butter. Flour mixed into butter as a paste, then whisked into hot liquid, dissolves without lumps. Added directly to liquid it clumps, leaving a grainy sauce.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, butter, pepper, parsley, flour, bread, sherry):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, pepper, parsley, flour, bread, sherry. 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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