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Boiled Halibut

A simple boiled halibut served with lemon, parsley, and fish sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. In a large pot, bring enough water to a boil to cover the halibut.

  2. Add a little coarse sea salt and vinegar to the boiling water.

  3. Carefully add the halibut and let the water reboil.

  4. Skim the surface of the water to remove any foam.

  5. Cook the halibut slowly for about 25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot napkin, garnished with cut lemon and parsley, with fish sauce on the side.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Is the main protein, cooked gently in simmering liquid until it turns opaque and flakes.
Vinegar
Adds a mild acidity to the poaching water that brightens the flavour of the fish.
Fish sauce
Adds savoury depth as a side condiment for seasoning the cooked fish.

The step that matters

Cook the halibut slowly for about 25 minutes. Once the water reboils, a gentle simmer cooks the fish evenly. A hard boil toughens the proteins and breaks the flesh apart, so the fish turns dry and ragged.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Corianderfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, vinegar, lemon, fish 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.

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