Turbot

Turbot is the flatfish chefs whisper about. A broad, almost circular fish, it lies half-buried on clean sand, perfectly camouflaged and patiently waiting. To find one off the Cornish shore is a moment anglers remember for years; and on the plate, that firm white flesh, dense and faintly sweet, earns every bit of its reputation.

How to spot it

Turbot has an almost circular outline, a broad disc that sets it apart from the more oval plaice and dab at a glance. It's a left-eyed flatfish, both eyes sitting on the left side of the body, and it carries no scales. Instead the upper surface is studded with small bony lumps, or tubercules, scattered like grit across the skin. Its mottled, sandy-brown colouring shifts to match whatever ground it's resting on. Between the rounded shape and that gritty, textured skin, you'll rarely mistake a turbot once you know the signs.

Where it lives

Turbot are dedicated bottom dwellers that favour clean sandy and gravelly seabeds, the open ground where their camouflage works best. They lie half-buried, waiting in ambush for smaller fish and shrimp to pass within reach. Around the UK and Cornish coast you'll find them off sandy beaches and around estuary mouths, though they tend to sit more at sea than up inside the estuaries themselves. Seek out clean, uncluttered ground rather than reef or weed, and you're fishing where a turbot is most likely to be lying in wait.

Catching it

Sand eel is the classic offering for turbot and hard to beat, with strips of fresh mackerel and prawn also proving reliable when the eels run short. Present your bait on a ledger rig, which keeps it pinned near the bottom where these ambush feeders lie, or work a plaice spoon slowly across clean sand to draw a fish out. Fish from sandy beaches and estuary mouths that give access to that clean ground, ideally where there's a little tide to move your bait naturally. Wild turbot is a data-poor stock and the MCS Good Fish Guide urges caution until management improves, so take only what you need, favour line- or net-caught fish over trawled, and return undersized or surplus fish carefully.

In the kitchen

Turbot wants a bit of nerve in the kitchen, not timidity. The flesh is firm, dense and white, with a clean flavour that holds up to more than butter and lemon. The fishmonger's way is to cook it whole on the bone: score the dark skin, set it under a hot grill or in a turbot kettle, and baste it with butter as it goes. The bone keeps the flesh moist and adds flavour you lose in a fillet. If you'd rather portion it, ask for fillets or run a knife down the central line and ease each fillet off the frame yourself, then roast them firm-side down. A glass of white, beurre blanc or brown shrimp, and you're eating very well indeed.