Name: Sole Normande
Ingredients: 2 soles; ½ cup fresh milk; ½ cup artichoke cooking liquid; ¼ cup cream; coarse sea salt; small croutons

Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sole Normande

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the milk and artichoke cooking liquid gently for 5-6 minutes until it thickens into a rich cream.
For a refined version, use ¾ cup of milk and add the cream at the end.
Fry small croutons until they are a light color.
Serve the dish while ensuring the soup remains perfectly white.

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.

Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Artichoke + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together335 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Milk + artichoketop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together218 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).