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Halibut Steak a LA Flamande

Halibut steak baked with butter, onion, pepper, salt, lemon, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Halibut Steak a LA Flamande

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the halibut steak.

  2. Butter the bottom of a flat, fire-safe dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle grated onion, pepper, and salt over the bottom.

  2. Place the fish on top and brush it with the egg yolk.

  3. Sprinkle with more grated onion, pepper, salt, and chopped parsley.

  4. Pour lemon juice over the fish and dot with bits of butter.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve in the baking dish, garnished with parsley 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut steak
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently to flaky, moist flesh.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the fish, it enriches the surface and helps it brown and set.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and keeping the fish moist as it bakes.
Grated onion
Contributes savory aroma and moisture that perfumes the fish as it cooks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and mild fish flavor.

The step that matters

Baking the fish. Halibut is lean and dries out quickly in heat. Baking it just until it flakes, while the butter and onion keep it moist, prevents a tough, dry texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, egg, lemon, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, lemon, parsley. 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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