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Sole Au Gratin

Sole au Gratin is a baked sole fillet topped with a herb and mushroom butter mixture and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Split the sole and remove the bones.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the herbs and chopped mushrooms.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and vinegar, and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Place half of the mixture inside the sole.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the sole to a buttered dish and spread the remaining mixture on top.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and moisten with white wine.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Provides the delicate white flesh that is the main body of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying the herbs and mushroom flavour through the dish.
Mushrooms
Contribute moisture and earthy savour to the filling as they cook in butter.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top during baking.
White wine
Moistens the surface, adding acidity and aroma that keep the fish from drying out.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. Fish is cooked when its flesh turns opaque and flakes easily; overbaking dries it out and toughens the texture, so check it at the end of the stated time.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, thyme, mushroom, pepper, vinegar, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, thyme, mushroom, pepper, vinegar, bread. 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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