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Turbot Au Gratin

A baked dish of diced turbot topped with béchamel, cheese, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the flesh of the turbot into small dice, removing all skin and bone.

  2. Place the diced turbot in a fireproof baking dish.

Assemble and brown

  1. Add a little white sauce and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

  2. Cover with finely grated browned breadcrumbs and place small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C) or with a salamander.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Turbot + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of cold turbot
Provides the main body of the dish as flaked fish pieces.
Béchamel or any good white sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess that keeps the fish from drying out.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when browned in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the topping brown evenly.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the topping. The gratin needs enough heat to brown the breadcrumbs and cheese without drying the fish underneath. Too little heat leaves it pale and soggy; too much or too long can scorch the topping before the dish is heated through.

“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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