Name: Turbot Au Bechamel, Or, in Bechamel Sauce
Ingredients: cold turbot, skin removed; rich béchamel sauce; fried bread, cut into elegant shapes; clarified butter; bread crumbs

Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turbot Au Bechamel, Or, in Bechamel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cold turbot by removing the skin.
Heat the turbot in a rich béchamel sauce.
Serve in a vol-au-vent or a deep dish with a border of fried bread.
Cut the fried bread into elegant shapes and arrange them alternately, dark and light.
Cover the surface with a half-inch layer of fried bread crumbs, well drained and dried.
Alternatively, spread un-fried bread crumbs over the fish, moisten with clarified butter, and brown with a salamander.

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 + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together248 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Turbot Au Bechamel, Or, in Bechamel Sauce