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Sole Au Gratin

Baked sole topped with preserved mushrooms, Italian sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter, seasoned with wine, lemon, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 14,037 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sole Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Skin both sides of the sole.

  2. Cut off the head and fins.

  3. Make several incisions across one side.

  4. Place the sole cut side up in a well-buttered gratin dish.

Season and layer

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add ¼ cup white wine.

  3. Add a few drops of lemon juice.

  4. Add mushroom liquor.

  5. Add chopped parsley.

  6. Place sliced preserved mushrooms down the center of the fish.

  7. Cover with Italian sauce.

  8. Sprinkle with brown breadcrumbs.

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

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

  4. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

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

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 through gently in the gratin dish.
Preserved mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and moisture to the filling under the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the breadcrumbs brown in the oven.
Brown breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust through browning on top of the dish.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture that helps flavor and steam the fish.

The step that matters

Bake for the right time for the fish's size. Fish cooks quickly and becomes dry and rubbery if overbaked, while underbaking leaves it translucent and unsafe. Checking the thickness of the sole against the 20 to 30 minute range helps the flesh turn opaque and flake evenly.

“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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