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Whiting Au Gratin

A baked gratin of whiting fish with onions, wine, parsley, mushrooms, anchovy sauce, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Whiting Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the chopped onions in a strong earthen dish and add the white wine.

  3. Season the whiting with pepper and salt, then place it in the dish.

  4. Sprinkle the chopped parsley and mushrooms over the fish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the anchovy sauce over the top and sprinkle with brown bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until nicely browned.

  3. Serve in the dish it was cooked in.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  5. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Forms the main body of the gratin, cooking through to a tender, flaky texture.
Anchovy sauce
Adds savoury depth and moisture that keeps the fish from drying out in the oven.
Brown bread crumbs
Form a crisp topping that browns in the oven, adding texture over the fish.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture, helping to steam the fish in the dish.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savoury flavour into the dish as they cook.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. Baking long enough lets the fish cook through and the crumb topping brown. Too little time leaves the fish underdone, while overbaking can dry the fish and toughen the crumbs.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, whiting, fish, pepper, parsley, mushroom, anchovy):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, whiting, fish, pepper, parsley, mushroom, anchovy. 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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