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Baked Sole

Baked Sole is a fish dish baked with herbs, butter, mushrooms, wine, stock, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Sole

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and skin the soles, then cut them into medium-sized pieces.

  2. Rub the fish with coarse sea salt, sprinkle with chopped shallot and lemon juice, and let sit in a cool place for 15 minutes.

Assemble

  1. Butter a mold and line it with the chopped fresh herbs.

  2. Place the fish in the mold, cover with chopped mushrooms and remaining herbs, and dot with butter.

  3. Pour the white wine and stock over the fish, then top with breadcrumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Soles
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently into tender flakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the fish stay tender while baking.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture, creating steam and flavour in the mold.
Breadcrumbs
Forms a topping that helps trap moisture and gives a light golden crust.
Mushrooms
Contribute moisture and savoury, earthy flavour as they cook.
Shallot
Adds a mild onion-like sharpness that softens and mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Pouring the wine and stock over the fish. Liquid must surround the fish without drowning the breadcrumb topping; the liquid gently steams the fish while the topping browns, so the fish stays moist and tender.

“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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