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Gurnets, a LA Dauphine

A French-style dish of gurnet fish coated in egg, breadcrumbs, and Allemande sauce, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Gurnets, a LA Dauphine

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. Cut off the heads and fins from the gurnets.

  2. Boil the gurnets in water with salt and vinegar until cooked.

  3. Drain and skin the gurnets.

  4. Cover the gurnets with stiffly reduced Allemande sauce and let it cool.

Coat and bake

  1. Beat the egg.

  2. Coat the gurnets with the beaten egg.

  3. Cover the gurnets with breadcrumbs.

  4. Place the gurnets on a greased baking sheet.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for half an hour until golden.

Serve

  1. Garnish with Padgotte sauce containing crayfish tails 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. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,844 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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; boiling cooks it and its flesh sets firm and flakes when cooked.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating to the fish and helps it turn golden when baked.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust over the coated fish in the oven.
Stiffly-reduced allemande sauce
Thick, rich coating that clings to the fish and adds body and creaminess.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the outer crust brown.

The step that matters

Let the Allemande sauce cool until it sets. The sauce must be stiffly reduced and cooled so it holds firmly on the fish; if it is too warm or thin it slides off and the egg and crumb coating cannot stick 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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