Name: Sole Au Gratin
Ingredients: 1 sole; ½ cup parsley, chopped; ¼ shallot, finely chopped; 4 small mushrooms, chopped; ½ teaspoon lemon juice; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 tablespoons glaze; 3 oz butter

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 ↓

Sole Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the outside fins from the sole with a sharp knife.
Cut through the skin across the head and tail on both sides of the fish.
Peel the skin off from the tail to the head.
Wash the sole in cold water, dry it with a cloth, and make small cuts on both sides.
If desired, fillet the sole; otherwise, cook it whole.
Dry a small bunch of parsley in a cloth.
Chop the parsley finely on a board.
Finely chop a quarter of a shallot and mix it with the parsley.
The mixture should fill a tablespoon.
Wash the mushrooms in cold water, dry them, and peel them.
Chop the mushrooms finely.
Spread a little butter on a dish with your fingers.
Sprinkle half of the chopped parsley, shallot, and mushroom over the bottom of the buttered dish.
Pour half a teaspoon of lemon juice over the mixture in the dish, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

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