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Soles a LA Francoise

Sole à la Francoise is a French-style sole simmered with wine, vinegar, and herbs, finished with a beurre manié sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 455 recipes mention both. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the cleaned soles in a dish with water and vinegar for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the soles and dry them with a cloth.

Poach and serve

  1. In a stewpan, combine the soles, white wine, water, marjoram, savory, and onion.

  2. Sprinkle a pinch of coarse sea salt, cover, and simmer gently until cooked.

  3. Remove the soles and keep warm in a dish by the fire.

  4. Strain the cooking liquid, add the butter rolled in flour, and boil until thickened.

  5. Pour the sauce over the soles 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Marjoram + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Winter savory + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together666 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Marjoram + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together962 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. White wine + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. White wine + marjoramtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
Form the main body of the dish, cooking gently to tender, flaky flesh.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the strained cooking liquid into a sauce, while butter adds richness and smoothness.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid, flavouring the fish and the sauce.
Vinegar
Acidity in the soaking water helps firm the fish and sharpen its flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until cooked. Fish is delicate and turns dry and tough when it boils hard. A gentle simmer cooks the flesh through while keeping it moist and flaky.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, white wine, marjoram, winter savory, clove, butter, flour):

  1. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  2. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, white wine, marjoram, winter savory, clove, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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