Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓
Boiled Turbot
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Soak the turbot in a mixture of strong salt and water for 10 minutes.
Rub the fish to remove slime, then wash it carefully in fresh water and dry it.
Leave the fins on and make an incision in the black side to prevent cracking.
Rub the white side with lemon juice and a little coarse sea salt.
Boil and serve
Ensure the fish kettle is clean and roomy, then boil the fish for 25 to 30 minutes, skimming as necessary.
Serve the fish with the white side up on a hot dish, with a folded napkin underneath.
Garnish with crimped parsley, cut lemon, and lobster spawn.
Serve lobster sauce, hollandaise, or butter sauce separately in a sauce-boat.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Turbot + lobstertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Turbot + parsleytop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together264 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Parsley + lobstertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together890 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Turbot + lemontop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 whose firm, white flesh is cooked gently whole in simmering water.
- Lemon juice
- Its acidity brightens the flavour of the white flesh and lightly firms its surface.
The step that matters
Boiling the fish. Water that boils too hard can break up the delicate flesh and cloud the surface, so the fish should simmer gently. Skimming removes foam that would otherwise settle on the fish and spoil its appearance.
“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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