Name: Gurnets, a LA Dauphine
Ingredients: 2 gurnets; water; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon vinegar; stiffly-reduced Allemande sauce; 1 egg; bread crumbs; butter for greasing; Ramjotte sauce with crayfish tails for garnish

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gurnets, a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

Cut off the heads and fins from the gurnets.
Boil the gurnets in water with salt and vinegar until cooked.
Drain and skin the gurnets.

Coat and bake

Cover the gurnets with stiffly reduced Allemande sauce and let it cool.
Beat the egg and coat the gurnets, then cover with bread crumbs.
Place the gurnets on a greased baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Serve

Serve garnished with Ramjotte sauce containing crayfish tails.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sauce + crayfishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together195 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Gurnets: The main fish, which is cooked, coated and baked as the centre of the dish.
Stiffly-reduced allemande sauce: Thick sauce that coats the fish and sets as it cools, holding the crumb coating in place.
Egg: Beaten egg acts as a binder so the bread crumbs stick to the fish.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the sauce cool before coating. A stiffly reduced sauce must cool and firm up so it clings to the fish. If it is still warm and loose, it slides off and the egg and crumbs will not adhere well.

“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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Gurnets, a LA Dauphine