Name: Filleted Soles
Ingredients: 4 soles; 1 egg white; ½ cup breadcrumbs; coarse sea salt; butter; 1 lemon; Italian sauce

Why it works: Butter and sauce 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 ↓

Filleted Soles

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Skin and wash the soles, then separate the meat from the bones.
Cut each fillet into two pieces.

Coat and bake

Brush the fillets with egg white and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and seasoning.
Place in a baking dish and dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

Squeeze lemon juice over the fillets before serving with Italian sauce.

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.

Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce 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

Soles: Provide the delicate white fish fillets that form the main body of the dish.
Egg white: Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the fillets.
Breadcrumbs: Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the coating brown and the fish stay moist.
Lemon: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich fish and butter.