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Plain Boiled Turbot, or a L'anglaise

A boiled turbot seasoned with lemon and sea salt, served with lobster and Dutch sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Plain Boiled Turbot, or a L'anglaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose a thick, plump turbot.

  2. Check the back bone for color.

  3. Wash the turbot.

  4. Dry the turbot.

  5. Rub the turbot with lemon juice and a little salt.

Poach

  1. Place the turbot in a kettle.

  2. Cover the turbot with spring water.

  3. Add a handful of coarse sea salt.

  4. Bring the water to a boil.

  5. Once simmering, skim the water.

  6. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil.

  7. Boil for about 30 minutes.

  8. Carefully lift the turbot out with a drainer.

Serve

  1. Place the turbot on a serving dish.

  2. Serve with lobster and Dutch sauces.

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
Firm, mild white fish whose flesh turns opaque and flakes as it cooks through.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the mild flavor of the fish.

The step that matters

Maintain a gentle boil. A vigorous boil agitates the water and can break the delicate fish apart and toughen its flesh. Keeping the water at a gentle simmer cooks the turbot evenly while it 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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