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White-wine Sauce for Sole

A sauce made from white wine, onion, herbs, peppercorns, and egg yolk served over sole.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,535 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White-wine Sauce for Sole

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the sole

  1. Clean and trim the sole, then place it in a shallow fish kettle.

  2. Sprinkle the diced onion over the fish, then add salt, sweet herbs, peppercorns, and clove.

  3. Pour enough white wine over the sole to cover it and boil gently until cooked through.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the cooking liquid into a small saucepan and place it by the fire.

  2. Gradually stir in the egg yolk until the sauce thickens, then remove from heat.

  3. Pour the sauce over the fish 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. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Clove + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,715 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. White wine + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Onion and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 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

Sole
Is the main protein, cooked gently in the wine until just firm and flaky.
French white wine
Provides the cooking liquid and acidity that flavours both the fish and the sauce.
Egg yolk
Thickens the strained liquid into a sauce as its proteins set with gentle heat.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and flavour to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently, but if the liquid is too hot or added too quickly it can scramble. Stir gradually and remove from heat as soon as the sauce thickens.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, white wine, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, white wine, 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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