Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 28,543 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, tree nuts, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: walnut, fish
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fish
Wash the soles and fillets in three or four waters.
Boil the fish gently in a little water and salt.
Strain the liquid carefully.
Bake
Combine 3 tablespoons of the strained liquid with a piece of butter the size of a walnut in an earthenware or tin dish.
Place the dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Turn the fillets over.
Pour a little more liquid and butter over them.
Assemble and serve
Make small balls of butter mixed with finely chopped parsley.
Place some parsley butter balls in a hot dish.
Lay the fillets over them.
Add more butter balls on top.
Pour any remaining liquid from the tin into the dish.
Cover with a hot lid.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together28,543 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Soles fillets
- Provide the delicate white fish that is gently poached and then baked until tender.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and coats the fish, adding richness and moisture as it melts.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green herbal aroma and flavour to the parsley butter.
The step that matters
Boil the fish gently. Vigorous boiling toughens delicate fish proteins and breaks the fillets apart, so the water should only simmer gently.
“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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