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Granade of Fish

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

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. Whip the egg whites, reserving 1 teaspoon for later use.

  3. Remove bones and fins from the red mullet and sole, cutting them into 1‑inch wide strips.

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

Assemble

  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 granade 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
Whipped whites give the smoothing layer lift and help bind the forcemeat to the fish.
Sole
Delicate white fish fillets form the tender, flaky body of the dish.
Red mullet
Firm fillets add flavour and colour contrast in the layers.
Butter
Enriches the sweetbread, artichoke, oysters and truffles, adding richness and aroma.
Truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the whole dish.
Veal sweetbread
Adds a soft, creamy texture and richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Turning the granade onto a plate. The dish is delicate and held together by the set forcemeat and egg white. Turning it carefully while hot lets excess liquid drain away and keeps the layers from breaking apart.

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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