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Turbot a VAngloise

A boiled turbot seasoned with lemon and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and lemon work together. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Turbot a VAngloise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the turbot in cold water mixed with a little milk (in winter).

  2. Lay the turbot on ice (in summer).

  3. Make a 3-inch incision in the back. Lift the flesh. Cut the bones on each side of the backbone.

  4. Tie the mouth with pack thread.

  5. Rub the belly with lemon juice.

  6. Cover the fish with lemon slices.

  7. Sprinkle the fish with salt.

Poach

  1. Place the fish in a strainer over a kettle half-filled with hot water.

  2. Cover the fish with a napkin and kettle lid.

  3. Bring the water to a boil.

  4. Skim the surface.

  5. Remove the fish from heat.

  6. Cover the kettle with ashes.

  7. Return the fish to the kettle.

  8. Ensure the fish simmers gently for 1.5 hours.

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. 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, cooked gently in trapped steam and hot water until just set.
Lemon
Its juice and slices add acidity and a bright aroma that perfume the delicate fish.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the flesh and firms its surface before the gentle cooking.

The step that matters

Keep the water at a gentle simmer. A hard boil breaks up delicate fish flesh and makes it cloudy and flaky. Gentle heat cooks the protein evenly so the fish stays moist and intact.

“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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