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Sole Mornay

A sole fillet baked with Mornay sauce, fish fumet, butter, and grated Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Gruyere cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 152 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Sole Mornay

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Lay the sole in a buttered dish and sprinkle with fish fumet.

  3. Add butter in small pieces on top of the sole.

Poach and sauce

  1. Poach the sole gently.

  2. Coat the bottom of the dish with Mornay sauce.

  3. Drain the fish and place it on the prepared dish.

  4. Cover the fish with Mornay sauce.

Gratin and bake

  1. Sprinkle with grated Gruyère and Parmesan.

  2. Bake in the hot oven until it forms a gratin.

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. Gruyere cheese + parmesan cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently into delicate, flaky flesh.
Fish fumet
Poaches the fish and adds savory fish flavor and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps keep the fish moist during cooking.
Mornay sauce
Creamy cheese sauce that coats the fish, adding moisture and richness.
Gruyère cheese
Melts into the topping and browns to form a golden gratin.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the topping brown.

The step that matters

Poach the sole gently. Fish proteins toughen and the flesh breaks apart when it simmers or boils hard. Gentle heat keeps the sole tender and moist before it goes into the oven.

“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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