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To Boil a Turbot

A boiled turbot served with a butter‑lobster sauce and horse‑radish garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turbot and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 110 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

To Boil a Turbot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the turbot in a large amount of saltwater for 1-2 hours, changing the water 5-6 times if needed.

  2. Combine spring water, salt, vinegar, and horse-radish in a fish kettle.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Poach the turbot

  1. Place the turbot on a fish plate.

  2. Put the fish plate into the boiling water.

  3. Cook the turbot until just done.

  4. Remove the fish kettle from heat.

  5. Let the fish drain on the plate.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the lobster spawn and chopped lobster meat to the pan.

  3. Stir in the anchovy liquor.

  4. Bring the sauce to a boil.

  5. Pour the sauce into basins.

Serve

  1. Serve the turbot on a dish.

  2. Garnish with scraped horse-radish and lemon.

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 + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together529 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Turbot + lobstertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Vinegar + radishtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Turbot
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently until just done so the flesh stays moist.
Fresh butter
Melts into the sauce, adding richness and a smooth, silky texture.
Lobster spawn
Adds a rich, briny flavour and colour to the butter sauce.
Anchovy liquor
Adds a salty, savoury depth that sharpens the flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the turbot until just done. Fish proteins toughen and dry out quickly when overcooked, so the turbot should be removed from the hot water as soon as it is opaque and tender.

“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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