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Sole Au Gratin

A baked sole fillet topped with parsley, shallot, mushrooms, lemon, butter, and brown crumbs, finished with glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 the sole and trim off the fins.

  2. Nick it in three or four places on both sides.

  3. Dry the sole well.

Assemble

  1. Chop the parsley, shallot, and mushrooms, and mix them together.

  2. Butter a dish.

  3. Sprinkle half of the chopped mixture over it.

  4. Lay the sole on the seasoned dish.

  5. Sprinkle the remainder of the mixture over the sole.

  6. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the fish.

  7. Shake some brown crumbs on top.

  8. Dot the sole with bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. Bake for ten minutes.

  3. Transfer the cooked sole to a clean dish.

  4. Pour the glaze around as sauce.

  5. Garnish and serve.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
The main fish, which cooks gently and turns flaky when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown in the oven.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the topping as they cook.
Brown crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top of the fish.
Glaze
Provides a rich, savoury sauce served alongside the baked fish.

The step that matters

Dry the sole well. Surface moisture on the fish turns to steam and dilutes the seasoning and crumbs, so the topping will not brown properly. Patting the fish dry before assembling helps it crisp.

“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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