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Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish dish topped with white sauce, cheese, and buttered breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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. Boil the fish until tender.

  2. Remove the skin, dark parts, and bones, then pull the fish into pieces.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the fish in a baking dish.

  2. Pour the white sauce over the fish.

  3. Add the grated cheese.

  4. Cover the top with buttered bread crumbs.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Cheese + fishtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + fishtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 and provides its substance once flaked.
White sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy texture that keeps the fish from drying out in the oven.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding richness and flavor.
Buttered bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping through browning, with fat from the butter aiding color.

The step that matters

Removing the skin, dark parts, and bones. Bones and dark flesh left in the fish are unpleasant to eat and can be hard to spot once the dish is covered in sauce and crumbs, so the fish should be checked carefully before baking.

“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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