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Fillets of Sole, Mushroom Sauce

Sole fillets served with a creamy mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,765 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Fillets of Sole, Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the fish into eight fillets and place in a shallow dish.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then pour over the white wine. Cover and let stand for one hour.

  3. Drain the fillets. Dip each fillet in heavy cream, then in flour.

Fry and plate

  1. Fry the fillets in deep fat until golden.

  2. Transfer the fillets to a hot serving dish. Top the fillets with sautéed mushroom caps in butter.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine fish skin and bones, carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaf, and peppercorns in a stew pan. Cover the pan with cold water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the liquid to one cup of stock. Strain the stock.

  3. Melt butter in a pan. Add flour to the melted butter. Gradually pour in the fish stock.

  4. Stir in heavy cream and beaten egg yolks. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

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. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

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

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Coats the fillets so they fry to a golden crust and thickens the sauce with butter.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and moisture to the coating and gives the sauce a silky texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sauce roux and the sautéed mushroom topping.
Mushroom caps
Add earthy flavor and a tender, savory topping to the fried fish.

The step that matters

Frying the fillets in deep fat until golden. The fish must be well drained and the fat hot enough so the flour and cream coating crisps quickly. Otherwise the coating absorbs excess oil and turns greasy, and the delicate fish overcooks before the crust forms.

Flavor stand-ins for the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, pepper, white wine, cream, flour, mushroom, butter):

  1. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, pepper, white wine, cream, flour, mushroom, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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