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Sole Au Gratin, À LA Fran-çaise

A baked sole fillet topped with parsley, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and a sauce of butter, wine, anchovy essence, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 479 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin, À LA Fran-çaise

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan, add minced shalot, pepper, and salt, then stir briskly over heat for 5 minutes.

  2. Add parsley and mushrooms and stir for another 5 minutes.

  3. Pour out the mixture.

Assemble

  1. Butter a baking dish thickly and lay the herbs in it.

  2. Place the sole on top and cover the sole with bread crumbs.

  3. Dot with butter, then moisten with wine, anchovy essence, and ketchup.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 15 minutes.

  2. If not browned, hold a salamander over it for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Serve hot in the baking dish.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Anchovy + ketchuptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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 under the crumbs and wine.
Bread crumbs
Form a crust that browns in the oven, giving the gratin its topping.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury depth to the herb base beneath the fish.
Light wine
Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the fish tender while it bakes.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth that seasons the fish and sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the topping under the salamander. Bread crumbs brown through dry heat. Holding the salamander too long can scorch the crumbs before the fish is fully cooked through.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, mushroom, bread, anchovy, ketchup, wine):

  1. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Celeryabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, mushroom, bread, anchovy, ketchup, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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