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Granade of Fish

A casserole of fish, sweetbread, artichoke, oysters, truffles, and forcemeat baked with bacon and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 226 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Granade of Fish

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

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites and reserve 1 teaspoon for later.

  3. Cut the red mullet and sole into 1-inch wide strips, keeping the skin intact.

  4. In a pan, stew the sweetbread, artichoke, oysters, and truffles in butter for 15 minutes, then let cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a 5-6 inch casserole with bacon slices, placing carrot bits in the center.

  2. Layer the fish strips over the bacon, alternating colors, then add half of the forcemeat.

  3. Add the cooled sweetbread mixture and cover with the remaining forcemeat, smoothing it with the reserved egg white.

  4. Cover with buttered paper and the casserole lid, then bake for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully turn the dish onto a plate to drain, remove the bacon, and serve hot with rich veal gravy around it.

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. Artichoke + carrottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Artichoke + truffletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together240 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind the forcemeat and give a smooth glossy surface when spread over the top.
Sole
Provides delicate fish flesh that sets firm and tender when baked.
Red mullet
Adds firm, flavourful fish flesh that holds its shape in the layers.
Oysters
Contribute briny, savoury juices that flavour the fish and the filling.
Truffles
Add a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the butter-cooked filling.
Veal sweetbread
Gives a rich, creamy texture to the filling after gentle stewing in butter.

The step that matters

Smoothing the forcemeat with egg white. Egg white sets when heated and seals the top layer, so the forcemeat stays together and the surface cooks evenly rather than cracking or drying during baking.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, veal, artichoke, oyster, truffle, butter):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, veal, artichoke, oyster, truffle, butter. 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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