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Sole Au Gratin

A baked sole fillet topped with wine, mushroom liquor, parsley, preserved mushrooms, Italian sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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 the fish

  1. Remove the skin from both sides of the sole and cut off the head and fins.

  2. Make several incisions on one side of the fish and season it with salt and pepper.

Assemble

  1. Place the fish cut side up in a well-buttered gratin dish.

  2. Add the white wine, mushroom liquor, and chopped parsley.

  3. Place sliced preserved mushrooms down the center of the fish and cover with Italian sauce.

  4. Sprinkle with brown breadcrumbs and dot with small pieces of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the sole.

  2. Serve the dish on a larger plate as it comes out of the oven.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in the wine and liquor.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the breadcrumbs brown in the oven.
Brown breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they toast in the oven.
Mushroom liquor
Adds earthy flavor and moisture to the fish as it bakes.
Rich italian sauce
Adds moisture and richness over the fish and mushrooms.

The step that matters

Judging the bake time. Baking time depends on the size of the sole. Too long dries out the delicate fish flesh, while too short leaves it undercooked. Checking for flaky, opaque flesh helps avoid both.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, white wine, mushroom, sauce, 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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