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To Collop Halibut

Halibut cutlets simmered in a herb broth with butter or cream, served with capers and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Collop Halibut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets and broth

  1. Fry the halibut cutlets until golden.

  2. Combine halibut bones, onions, celery, and sweet herbs in a pot.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the broth.

  5. Thicken the broth.

  6. Flour the cutlets.

Stew

  1. Place the cutlets in a stew pan with the broth.

  2. Let them stew gently until tender.

  3. Thicken the gravy with butter or cream.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in Harvey’s sauce and white wine.

  2. Serve the dish garnished with capers and lemon slices.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  2. Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Halibut
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky as it stews.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth to the broth as they cook down.
Celery
Adds aromatic savoury flavour to the broth.
Butter or cream
Thickens the gravy and adds richness and a smooth texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and brightness to the gravy.
Harvey’s sauce
Adds savoury, tangy depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Let them stew gently until tender. Gentle simmering cooks the halibut through slowly, so the delicate flakes stay intact and tender instead of breaking apart in a hard boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, sauce, white wine, capers, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, sauce, white wine, capers, lemon. 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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