Skip to main content
Main

John Dory Boiled, with Lobster Sauce

A boiled John Dory served with lobster sauce and garnished with fresh parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lobster and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

John Dory Boiled, with Lobster Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the John Dory in salted water until cooked through.

  2. Serve the fish with lobster sauce poured over it.

  3. Garnish with fresh parsley, especially in the opening of the head.

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. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Fish + lobstertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  4. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

John dory fish
Its flesh firms and turns opaque as it cooks, forming the main texture of the dish.

The step that matters

Boil until cooked through. Fish proteins toughen and dry out when overheated, so the fish should be removed as soon as it turns opaque and flakes easily.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, lobster, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, lobster, sauce. 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.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipes