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Fish Au Gratin

Fish au gratin is a baked sole topped with parsley, bacon, breadcrumbs, butter, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fish Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the minced onion, parsley, bacon, bread crumbs, and seasoning thoroughly.

  3. Butter a dish suitable for cooking and serving the fish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread half of the seasoning mixture in the dish, then wash and dry the fish and place it on top.

  2. Spread the remaining seasoning over the fish and gently pour the gravy on top.

  3. Sprinkle with a few bread crumbs and dot with tiny pieces of butter.

  4. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in the oven and flaking when done.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture from the gravy and butter and brown on top to form a crisp crust.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top crumbs brown and the fish stay moist.
Bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and fat to the seasoning mixture as it cooks.
Good gravy
Keeps the fish moist during baking and adds savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Bake for the right time. Baking time depends on fish thickness, so check the fish near the low end of the range. Overbaking dries the delicate flesh, which becomes tough and loses moisture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, bread, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, bread, butter. 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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