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Entree of Turbot Baked

Baked turbot stuffed with forcemeat, topped with egg white and breadcrumbs, served with a sauce of cullis, anchovy essence, Madeira wine, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Entree of Turbot Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Fill the cavity near the head of the turbot with the seasoned forcemeat.

  3. Brush the best side of the turbot with egg white and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Bake gently until browned.

  2. In a saucepan, mix cullis, anchovy essence, Madeira wine, butter, and lemon juice over low heat until well combined.

  3. Serve the turbot with the sauce underneath.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the oven.
Egg white
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish surface so they stay in place.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crust that browns in the oven.
Cullis
Provides the rich, thickened base of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and a sweet, fortified aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bake gently until browned. Fish is delicate and its proteins toughen and dry when overcooked at high heat. Gentle heat cooks the flesh through evenly while the egg-white and crumb crust browns.

“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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