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Smelts Au Gratin

A baked dish of smelts topped with bread crumbs, butter, Parmesan cheese, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Smelts Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Wipe the smelts dry and place a layer of fine bread crumbs and small lumps of butter in a shallow baking dish.

  3. Lay the smelts open flat on top of the crumbs.

Layer and bake

  1. Grate a layer of Parmesan cheese over the smelts, then add another layer of bread crumbs and butter.

  2. Repeat the layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs, butter, and cheese on top.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Bake for about 25 minutes until the top is browned and crispy.

Serve

  1. Serve by passing the dish around for guests to help themselves.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Bread + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Smelts
Form the main body of the dish, cooking through under the crumb and cheese topping.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top and absorb moisture from the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown and crisp in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a crisp finish.

The step that matters

Bake until the top is browned and crispy. Baking long enough lets the butter and cheese brown the crumbs, which gives the crisp top. Pulling the dish early leaves the crust pale and soft.

“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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