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Whiting Au Gratin

A baked whiting fish topped with buttered breadcrumbs, grated cheese, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Whiting 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Clean and prepare the whiting fish.

  3. In a pan, melt butter and add breadcrumbs, stirring until golden.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the fish in a baking dish, season with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour milk over the fish and top with the breadcrumb mixture and grated cheese.

  3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the fish is cooked through and the top is golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting fish
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through gently in the milk.
Butter
Carries fat for browning the breadcrumbs and adds richness.
Breadcrumbs
Toast to a golden crust that contrasts with the soft fish beneath.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a crisp surface.
Milk
Provides moisture that gently poaches the fish and forms a creamy base.

The step that matters

Toasting the breadcrumbs in butter. Stirring until golden browns the crumbs through the Maillard reaction, which adds flavour. Pulling them too early leaves a pale, bland topping, and letting them burn gives a bitter taste.

“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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