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Baked Stuffed Sole

A sole fillet stuffed with shrimp, parsley, shallot, herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg, then baked with butter and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Stuffed Sole

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 sole

  1. Skin the sole on both sides.

  2. Raise the flesh on the thicker side as if filleting.

  3. Wash the sole and dry it.

Make the stuffing

  1. Chop the shrimp, parsley, and shallot finely.

  2. Melt 1 oz of butter.

  3. Mix the melted butter with the shrimp, parsley, shallot, herbs, salt, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, and egg to make the stuffing.

  4. Fill the cavity of the sole with the stuffing.

  5. Fold the fillets over the stuffing.

Bake and serve

  1. Place half of the remaining butter in a baking dish.

  2. Lay the sole on top of the butter in the dish.

  3. Sprinkle browned breadcrumbs over the sole.

  4. Dot the remaining butter over the breadcrumbs.

  5. Place the dish in a roasting pan with some water.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  7. Garnish with lemon slices and parsley 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds together around the fish.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the stuffing, with browned crumbs giving a crisp top.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the fish moist as it bakes.
Shrimp
Adds savory flavour and a little body to the stuffing.
Sole
Forms the delicate white fish that is stuffed and baked.

The step that matters

Fill and fold the sole. Packing the stuffing too loosely or folding unevenly can leave gaps and uneven cooking. Egg in the stuffing binds it, so it stays in place rather than spilling out during baking.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, shrimp, nutmeg, butter, lemon, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, shrimp, nutmeg, butter, lemon, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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