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Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish dish with onion, butter, flour, lemon, gravy, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, and oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter and fry the chopped onion until soft.

  2. Cut the fish into pieces, roll in flour, and fry in the onion and butter until one side is browned.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. Add lemon juice, beef gravy, canned tomatoes, and reserved oyster liquor to the pan.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and dot with small pieces of butter.

  3. Place the dish in the oven over a pan of hot water and bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crumbs are brown.

Cook the oysters and serve

  1. Season the oysters with red pepper, salt, and lemon juice, then cook in a saucepan until they puff up.

  2. Pour the cooked oysters around the fish before serving.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked until flaky and browned on one side.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the fish and the crumb topping.
Beef gravy
Supplies savory flavour and moisture to the sauce around the fish.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, delicate flavour and tender texture when cooked until they puff.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the baked dish.
Canned tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Baking the fish over hot water. Setting the dish in a pan of hot water gently surrounds it with moderate heat, so the fish cooks through without drying out before the crumbs brown.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, fish, flour, beef, tomato, oyster):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, fish, flour, beef, tomato, oyster. 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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