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A fish fillet cooked with white wine, vinegar, anchovies, capers, leeks, and a butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and leek work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 12 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Place the fish on a bed of sliced onion and herbs.

  2. Pour equal parts white wine and vinegar over the fish to cover it.

  3. Sprinkle with grey salt and coarse pepper.

  4. Cook the fish over moderate heat until done, then remove from heat but leave in the saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. In another saucepan, melt the butter and add anchovies, capers, leeks, pepper, salt, nutmeg, flour, vinegar, and water.

  2. Cook these ingredients over heat, then warm the fish again.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish with some sauce poured over it and horseradish on the side.

  2. Serve the remaining sauce in a separate dish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Turbot + leektop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12 recipes

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

  2. Basil + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. White wine + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. White wine + vinegartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 that is cooked gently until flaky and done.
Butter
Melted to form the rich base of the sauce, adding fat and smooth body.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the warm butter to add savory depth to the sauce.
Capers
Add sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Flour
Thickens the butter and sauce ingredients so they cling to the fish.
White wine
Flavors and moistens the fish as it poaches with the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cook the fish over moderate heat until done. Fish proteins set and turn opaque at moderate heat, and overcooking makes the flesh dry and firm. Removing it from heat while it stays in the hot liquid lets it finish gently.

Flavor stand-ins for the basil

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

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, onion, leek, white wine, vinegar, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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