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Fish Au Gratin

A baked fish dish with onions, butter, flour, tomatoes, oyster liquor, and breadcrumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish 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. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the chopped onion until soft.

  3. Cut the fish into pieces.

  4. Roll the fish pieces in flour.

  5. Fry the floured fish in the onion and butter until one side is browned.

Make the sauce

  1. Add lemon juice or vinegar, beef gravy, canned tomatoes, and reserved oyster liquor to the pan.

  2. Season the oysters with red pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  3. Cook the oysters in a saucepan until they puff up.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.

  2. Dot with butter.

  3. Place the dish in the oven over a pan of hot water.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the crumbs are brown.

  5. Pour the cooked oysters around the fish before serving.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the dish, cooked until browned on one side.
Oysters
Add briny flavor and tender texture, with their liquor adding savory depth to the sauce.
Flour
Coats the fish so it browns in the pan and helps thicken the juices.
Beef gravy or meat extract
Adds savory, meaty depth to the sauce.
Canned tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.

The step that matters

Fry the floured fish until browned. Flour coating browns through the Maillard reaction, building flavor and a golden surface. Pan heat that is too low steams the fish and leaves it pale and soggy before baking.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, fish, flour, beef, tomato, oyster):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, fish, flour, beef, tomato, oyster. 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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