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Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish dish with onion, butter, flour, lemon juice, beef gravy, tomatoes, oyster liquor, bread crumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

Prepare the fish

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan and fry chopped onion until soft.

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

Bake the gratin

  1. Pour in lemon juice or vinegar, beef gravy, canned tomatoes, and oyster liquor.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and dot with bits of butter.

  3. Place the dish in the oven over a pan of hot water and bake until the crumbs are brown.

Cook the oysters and serve

  1. Season raw 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 tender.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the floured fish and the crumb topping.
Flour
Coats the fish so its surface browns in the frying pan.
Beef gravy or meat extract
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the sauce around the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the dish.

The step that matters

Place the dish over hot water and bake until the crumbs are brown. The water pan gives gentle, even heat so the fish heats through without drying out, while the crumbs brown on top. Baking too long or too hot can toughen the fish and dry the sauce.

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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