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Soles Filleted and Stewed

A stew of sole fillets with shallots, parsley, sherry, mushroom ketchup, anchovy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, cayenne, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Soles Filleted and Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fillet the soles and cut them into 12 pieces.

  2. Chop the shallots and parsley finely.

  3. Spread the shallots and parsley in a shallow pan.

Cook

  1. Double each fillet and arrange them in the center to form a star.

  2. Pour the sherry over the fish and stew for 2.5 minutes on medium heat.

  3. Turn the fish pieces and prepare the sauce mixture by combining mushroom ketchup, anchovy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, and cayenne.

  4. Pour the sauce into the center of the pan and cook until boiling, about 2.5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the dish hot in the pan.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ketchup + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
Provide the delicate white fish that forms the body of the stew.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth as it stews with the fish.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury umami depth to the sauce.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth that rounds out the sauce.
Shallots
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Cooking the fish gently. Fish proteins toughen and dry out quickly under strong heat, so stewing on medium heat keeps the soles tender and moist while the sauce is added.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, sherry, mushroom, ketchup, anchovy, sauce, sugar. 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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