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Boiled Sole

A simple boiled sole seasoned with vinegar, salt, peppercorns, and optional onion, served plain or with parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Boiled Sole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle salt lightly over the sole and place it in a dish with vinegar.

Poach

  1. Put the fish and vinegar into enough hot white stock or water to cover the sole.

  2. If using water, add the onion, salt, and peppercorns to it.

  3. Let the sole stand in the liquid for 10 minutes, gradually heating it.

  4. Simmer for 5 minutes or longer if the fish is thick.

  5. Remove the sole, drain, and serve plain or with parsley sauce.

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. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 that turns firm and flaky as it cooks gently in the liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mild fish.
White stock or water
Is the poaching liquid that cooks the fish evenly and gently.

The step that matters

Simmer for 5 minutes or longer if the fish is thick. Simmering rather than boiling keeps the liquid gentle so the delicate flesh cooks through without breaking apart or toughening. Thicker fish needs more time for the heat to reach its centre.

“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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