Name: Turbot and Matelot Sauce, Grilled
Ingredients: 1 small turbot; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 2 tablespoons salad oil or oiled butter; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Turbot and Matelot Sauce, Grilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash and dry the turbot.
Season it with pepper and salt.
Rub a little salad oil or oiled butter and lemon juice over it.

Grill and serve

Lay it on a grill and cook, turning constantly until done.
Do not cook over too fierce a fire.
Baste with a little oil or oiled butter.
Serve with Matelot Sauce.

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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: Is the main fish that is cooked and served as the dish.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
Salad oil or oiled butter: Adds fat that helps the fish stay moist and brown lightly on the grill.

The step that matters

Keep the fire moderate and turn constantly. Fish is delicate and its proteins set quickly over high heat, so a fierce fire can scorch the outside while the inside stays underdone. Turning often and keeping the heat gentle lets the flesh cook evenly and stay moist.

“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

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Turbot and Matelot Sauce, Grilled