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Broiled Turbot, Shrimp-sauce

Broiled turbot fillets served with shrimp sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Turbot, Shrimp-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the fillets from the turbot and cut them into thin, slanted slices.

  2. Season the slices and place them on a dish.

  3. Pour oil over them and add minced onion and parsley.

Coat the fish

  1. In a bowl, mix egg yolks with melted butter until nearly cold. Beat well.

  2. Dip each slice of turbot in the egg-butter mixture, then roll in grated bread-crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the slices on a grill and broil over a brisk fire, turning until cooked.

  2. Serve with shrimp sauce on the side.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main flesh of the dish, cooking to a flaky, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the butter into a coating that sets and helps the crumbs adhere.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the fish from drying under the heat.
Grated bread-crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns under the grill.
Oil
Adds moisture and helps the fish brown evenly on the grill.

The step that matters

Turning the slices while broiling. Thin slices cook quickly and can dry out or burn on one side. Turning them carefully over a brisk fire cooks the fish through while the crumb coating browns evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, parsley, egg, butter, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, parsley, egg, butter, bread. 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.

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