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Sole Au Gratin a l'Anglaise

Baked sole fillet topped with parsley, shallot, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, butter, lemon, and Italian sauce.

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 14,037 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin a l'Anglaise

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

  1. Skin the sole and remove the fins, head, and tail.

  2. Nick it on both sides and dry it well.

  3. Chop the parsley, shallot, and mushrooms and mix them together.

  4. Butter a dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Sprinkle half of the chopped mixture on the bottom of the dish.

  2. Place the sole on top.

  3. Sprinkle the remaining mixture over it.

  4. Squeeze lemon juice over the fish and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Top with browned breadcrumbs.

  6. Dot the fish with small pieces of butter.

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

Serve

  1. Transfer the fish to a clean dish.

  2. Warm the sauce and pour it around the fish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently into tender, flaky fillets.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory, earthy flavor as they release juices while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender and the top brown.
Shallot
Contributes a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that flavors the topping.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the fish and herbs.

The step that matters

Bake in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry and rubbery if overbaked. Checking for opaque, flaky flesh at the thickest point helps prevent overcooking.

“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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