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Sole Au Gratin

Sole au Gratin is a baked sole fillet topped with parsley, shallot, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, butter, and glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Skin the sole, cut off the fins, and nick it on both sides.

  2. Dry the sole well, then chop the parsley, shallot, and mushrooms, and mix them together.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a dish and sprinkle half of the chopped mixture on the bottom.

  2. Lay the sole on top and sprinkle the remaining mixture over the fish.

  3. Squeeze lemon juice over the sole, season with salt and pepper, and shake browned breadcrumbs on top.

  4. Dot the fish with small pieces of butter.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the fish to a clean dish, melt the glaze, and pour it around the fish as sauce.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Is the main protein, cooked gently in the oven until it turns opaque and flaky.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender while it bakes.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury flavour to the bed beneath the fish as they cook.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a golden, crisp topping that browns in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish and herbs.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry and rubbery once overcooked. Checking early keeps the flesh moist and flaky while the topping still browns.

“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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