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Soles Aux Fines Herbes

A sole fillet baked with shallots, sherry, butter, and herbs, finished with a reduced sauce of Harvey sauce and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soles Aux Fines Herbes

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 and bake

  1. In a sauté pan, combine chopped shallots, sherry, and butter.

  2. Add the sole and pour melted butter or brown gravy over it.

  3. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the sole from the pan and place it on a serving dish without a napkin.

  2. Reduce the remaining sauce over high heat, then add Harvey sauce and essence of anchovy.

  3. Pour the sauce over the sole and serve.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 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

Sole (in the method)
Provides the delicate white flesh that the dish is built around, cooked gently in the buttered pan.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the pan liquid, which becomes the base of the sauce.
Butter
Carries flavour and moisture over the fish and adds richness to the sauce.
Brown gravy
Adds savoury body and colour to the sauce when used in place of water.
Shallots
Contribute a mild onion aroma that flavours the pan sauce as it cooks.

The step that matters

Reducing the remaining sauce over high heat. Boiling the pan liquid concentrates its flavour and thickens it. Reducing too far can make it salty or syrupy, so watch it closely and stop once it coats a spoon.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, sherry, butter, sauce, anchovy):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, sherry, butter, sauce, anchovy. 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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