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Sole Au Gratin

A baked sole fillet topped with onion, mushroom, parsley, breadcrumbs, and clarified margarine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Skin the sole on both sides and trim it.

  2. Blanch the onion and chop it finely.

  3. Mix the chopped onion with the chopped mushroom, parsley, and seasoning.

Assemble

  1. Place the mixture down the center of a greased oval dish.

  2. Lay the sole on top of the mixture.

  3. Score the sole 2 or 3 times.

  4. Place the remaining mixture on top of the sole.

  5. Cover with browned crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35-40 minutes.

  2. Pour the clarified margarine around the dish.

  3. Garnish with lemon butterflies.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 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

Sole
Forms the main protein of the dish, cooking through gently to a flaky texture.
Browned crumbs
Form a golden, crisp topping that browns during baking.
Clarified margarine
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the dish brown and feel rich.
Mushroom
Adds moisture and savoury, earthy flavour to the filling.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Score the sole 2 or 3 times. Shallow cuts let heat penetrate the thick fish evenly and help it cook through at the same rate as the filling, while keeping the flesh from curling and drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, mushroom, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mushroom, parsley. 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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