Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Soles Au Gratin
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the sole fillets.
Spread cooked forced meat on the fillets, about ¼ inch thick.
Cover the bottom of a dish with ½ inch thick forced meat.
Form a crown with the fillets in the dish, creating a well in the middle.
Fill the intervals with forced meat to unite the fillets.
Use a knife dipped in hot water to smooth the edges.
Bake and serve
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and baste with butter.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until done.
Fill the hollow with a provencale or Italienne sauce before serving.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sole fillets
- Form the delicate main body of the dish, cooking into tender, flaky layers.
- Cooked forced meat
- Binds the fillets together and adds moisture so the fish stays tender while baking.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden top layer as they brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the crumbs brown evenly during baking.
The step that matters
Fill the intervals with forced meat to unite the fillets. The forced meat must fully bind the fillets so they bake as one piece and do not separate or dry out at the edges. Careful, even filling keeps the fish moist.
“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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