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Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish dish with macaroni, tomatoes, mushrooms, and sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Fish 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

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

  2. Slice the fish into ½ inch thick portions.

  3. Boil the macaroni until tender.

Assemble

  1. Butter a pie dish and layer the macaroni on the bottom.

  2. Dust the macaroni with Parmesan cheese.

  3. Add a layer of sliced tomatoes.

  4. Place the fish portions on top, adding a piece of mushroom and a slice of tomato between each.

  5. Pour the sauce blonde over the dish.

  6. Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese and season with pepper and salt.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 15 minutes, adding a little white wine if desired.

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. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Parmesan cheese + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Seer fish
Forms the main protein, cooking through in the oven as the centrepiece of the dish.
Macaroni
Forms a starchy base layer that soaks up sauce and holds the fish above it.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Sauce blonde
Supplies moisture and richness, keeping the layers from drying out during baking.
Ripe tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity that brightens the rich sauce and fish.
Black leicestershire mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture between the fish layers.

The step that matters

Slicing and layering the fish. Fish cooks quickly and can dry out or flake apart, so even ½ inch portions and a moist sauce layer help it stay tender during the 15-minute bake.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, parmesan cheese, mushroom, butter, pepper, white wine, sauce):

  1. Tomatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, parmesan cheese, mushroom, butter, pepper, white wine, sauce. 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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