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Turbot or Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish gratin with a creamy sauce, eggs, and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Turbot or 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 sauce

  1. Flake the cold boiled fish and place a layer in a buttered dish.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the flour until it bubbles.

  3. Gradually pour in the hot milk or water while stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Season the sauce with salt and lemon juice, if desired, then remove from heat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer more fish, sauce, and chopped eggs alternately in the dish until full.

  2. Top the dish with bread or cracker crumbs, then dot the crumbs with small bits of butter.

  3. Baste the top with milk or water.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the top is brown, about 10-15 minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the flaky main body of the dish, providing substance and texture.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the crumb topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that binds the layers together.
Milk or water
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and moistens the top when basted.
Hard-boiled eggs
Adds richness and a firm, creamy texture to the layers.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Stirring constantly while adding hot liquid keeps the flour smooth and prevents lumps. Flour must cook briefly in the butter so it thickens properly and loses its raw taste.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, flour, milk, egg, bread):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, flour, milk, egg, bread. 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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