Name: Turbot, Carving of
Ingredients: 1 pound cold dressed turbot, skin and bones removed, cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 teaspoon ground rice; 1 tablespoon curry paste or powder; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; 2 tablespoons good stock; salt to taste; 2 tablespoons thick cream; boiled rice for serving

Why it works: Turbot and cream work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 127 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Turbot, Carving of

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

1 pound cold dressed turbot, skin and bones removed, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon ground rice
1 tablespoon curry paste or powder
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons good stock
salt to taste
2 tablespoons thick cream
boiled rice for serving

Directions

Make the sauce

Mix ground rice, curry paste, lemon juice, stock, and salt in a saucepan.
Simmer the sauce gently for 10-12 minutes.
Stir in thick cream.

Finish and serve

Add the turbot pieces and heat until hot.
Serve the curry on a hot dish with boiled rice around it.

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.

Turbot + creamtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together127 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,399 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Turbot + ricetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together273 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: Provides the main protein, which stays tender when heated gently in the sauce.
Ground rice: Thickens the sauce as its starch swells during gentle simmering.
Curry paste or powder: Supplies the main spice flavour and aroma of the curry.
Thick cream: Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the curry.

The step that matters

Heating the turbot in the sauce. Fish protein toughens and dries when overheated, so the turbot should be added only at the end and heated just until hot rather than kept boiling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, rice, cream):

Coconutfits better
Vanillafits about as well
Lemonthe original
Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, rice, cream. 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Steamed Rice48 recipes

Rice Griddle Cakes28 recipes

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Turbot, Carving of