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Turbot

A whole turbot is brined, boiled, and served with a sauce of lobster spawn, minced lobster meat, anchovy liquor, butter, and horseradish.

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 ↓

Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the turbot in a large pan of saltwater for 1 hour, longer if very large.

  2. Place the turbot in a pot with cold water, salt, and horseradish.

  3. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes after boiling, depending on size.

Make the sauce

  1. Drain the turbot and melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Mix in the lobster spawn, minced meat, and anchovy liquor, and boil for 1 minute.

  3. Serve the sauce in boats or tureens, garnished with lemon slices and scraped 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. Turbot + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Turbot + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Meat + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together335 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 gently in salted water so its flesh turns firm and flaky.
Sweet butter
Melts into the sauce, giving it a rich, smooth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Lobster spawn
Thickens and colours the sauce while adding a concentrated shellfish flavour.
Minced lobster meat
Adds texture and sweet lobster flavour to the sauce.
Anchovy liquor
Adds a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the lobster flavour.

The step that matters

Cook for 30 to 45 minutes after boiling, depending on size. Fish proteins set and turn opaque as they heat, and overcooking drives out moisture, making the flesh dry and tough. Judging the time by the fish's size helps keep it moist and tender.

“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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