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Sole Au Gratin

A baked sole fillet topped with parsley, shallot, mushroom mixture, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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. Clean the sole by removing the skin and washing it in cold water.

  2. Dry it with a cloth and make small cuts on both sides.

  3. Chop the parsley and shallot finely, mixing them together.

  4. Wash the mushrooms, dry them, and chop them finely.

Assemble

  1. Grease a baking dish with butter and sprinkle half of the parsley, shallot, and mushroom mixture on the bottom.

  2. Drizzle half a teaspoon of lemon juice over the mixture, then add salt and pepper.

  3. Place the sole in the dish and top it with the remaining parsley, shallot, and mushroom mixture.

  4. Dot the sole with butter and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about one hour.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
The main protein, which turns flaky and tender as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the breadcrumbs brown on top.
Breadcrumbs
Form a golden, crisp crust over the fish during baking.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury depth to the filling beneath the fish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish and herbs.

The step that matters

Baking the sole. Baking at a moderate heat for a long time can dry out delicate fish, so the sole should be kept moist under its topping and checked for flakiness. Moisture from the mushrooms and butter helps protect it while it cooks through.

“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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