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Turbot

A whole turbot is boiled in salted vinegar water and served with parsley, lemon, horseradish, lobster sauce, anchovy butter, and plain butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and poach

  1. Rub the turbot lightly with salt and hang it in a cold place if storing.

  2. Place the turbot in a kettle and cover it completely with cold water.

  3. Add a handful of coarse sea salt and ⅓ cup of vinegar to the water.

  4. Gradually bring the water to a boil, skimming off any impurities to maintain the fish's color.

Serve

  1. Serve the turbot garnished with curled parsley, lemon, and horseradish.

  2. Serve lobster sauce, anchovy butter, and plain butter in separate tureens.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Turbot + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together248 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Turbot + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together110 recipes

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

  5. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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, whose firm flesh holds together through gentle poaching.
Vinegar
Acidity in the poaching water helps keep the flesh firm and white.
Plain butter
Adds richness and a smooth fat to pair with the delicate fish.

The step that matters

Bringing the water to a boil. Heating gradually and skimming off impurities keeps the poaching liquid clear and helps the fish keep its pale color. Rapid boiling can break up the delicate flesh.

“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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