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Soles Au Plat

A sole fillet baked with clarified butter, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Soles Au Plat

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

  1. Clarify the butter and pour it into a baking dish.

  2. Add salt, cayenne, essence of anchovies, and wine (if using).

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the cleaned soles in the dish and cover them with a thick layer of bread crumbs.

  2. Moisten the bread crumbs with clarified butter.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.

  4. For added flavor, consider placing a layer of shrimps between the soles and mixing lemon juice with the 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 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

Fresh butter
Clarified butter forms the fat that moistens the crumbs and browns them in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a thick crust over the fish that protects it while the crumbs toast.
Soles
The delicate white fish that is cooked gently in the buttery sauce.
Essence of anchovies
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the butter sauce.
Dry white wine or sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, thinning it slightly as it cooks.

The step that matters

Moistening the bread crumbs with clarified butter. Clarified butter contains no water or milk solids, so it coats the crumbs evenly and browns them without burning. Unclarified butter can scorch in the oven.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, white wine, bread, lemon):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, white wine, bread, lemon. 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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