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Turbot Paupiettes Au Vin Blanc

Turbot fillets rolled with fish forcemeat, shallot, parsley, mushrooms, and butter, baked in white wine and stock, finished with velouté and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 248 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Turbot Paupiettes Au Vin Blanc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the fillets from the bones of the turbot, trim off the skin, and flatten each piece with a wet rolling pin.

  2. Cut the fillets into even-sized pieces, season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Finely chop the shallot, parsley, and mushrooms, then mix with the forcemeat.

  4. Spread the mixture on one side of each fillet and roll them up neatly.

  5. Butter strips of white paper and wrap each fillet in the paper.

Cook the roulades

  1. Arrange the fillets upright in a deep sauté pan with 3 oz melted butter, cover, and cook for a few minutes in the oven.

  2. Add the wine and stock, then finish cooking in the oven, basting occasionally.

  3. Once cooked, remove the fillets, drain, and take off the paper bands.

  4. Arrange the fillets in a pyramidal form and keep warm.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Combine the white sauce with the fish liquor, reduce, strain, and finish with cream.

  2. Add a few drops of lemon juice, pour over the fish, and serve hot.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the delicate flaky body of the roulades that are rolled and cooked.
Fish forcemeat
Adds a soft, moist filling that keeps the rolled fillets tender during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender as it cooks.
Double cream
Enriches the sauce, giving it body and a smooth, velvety texture.
Velouté sauce
Provides the thick base of the sauce that coats the cooked fish.

The step that matters

Finish cooking in the oven, basting occasionally. Gentle oven heat with wine and stock cooks the fish through without drying it. Overcooked fish becomes tough and dry because its proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, fish, shallot, mushroom, butter, sauce, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, fish, shallot, mushroom, butter, sauce, cream. 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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