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Sole Au Gratin

Sole au gratin is a baked sole fillet topped with wine, lemon, mushroom liquor, parsley, preserved mushrooms, Italian sauce, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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, cut off the head and fins, and make several incisions across one side.

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

Season and top

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then add the white wine and lemon juice.

  2. Drizzle with mushroom liquor and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  3. Arrange sliced preserved mushrooms down the center of the fish.

  4. Cover with rich Italian sauce and sprinkle with brown breadcrumbs.

  5. Dot with tiny bits of butter and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on size.

Serve

  1. Transfer the dish to a larger plate 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 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, becoming tender and flaky when baked.
White wine
Adds moisture and acidity that flavour the fish as it bakes.
Preserved mushrooms
Add savoury, earthy flavour and soft texture to the centre of the dish.
Rich italian sauce
Keeps the fish moist and adds richness across the top during baking.
Brown breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned crust over the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Baking time. The bake time is given as a range that depends on the fish's size. Checking early helps prevent the sole from drying out and becoming tough, since fish proteins set and firm quickly with heat.

“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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