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 ↓
Fried Sole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Remove the black skin from the sole and scrape the other side.
Remove the gills and fins, then wash and wipe the fish.
Make an incision down each side, not quite to the backbone.
Place the sole in a dish and cover it with milk for 10-15 minutes.
Dust both sides with flour or brush with beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.
Dry the fish with a clean cloth.
Fry and serve
Heat fat in a frying pan to 380°F (193°C), then gradually raise to 385°F (196°C).
Fry the sole until golden brown, then place on kitchen paper or a clean cloth.
Sprinkle with salt, serve on a napkin, garnished with fried parsley and half a lemon.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sole
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky white flesh inside a crisp coating.
- Milk
- Soaks into the fish to keep it moist and mild-flavoured before coating.
- Flour
- Dries the fish surface so it browns and crisps evenly when fried.
- Eggs
- Act as a binder so the breadcrumb coating adheres to the fish.
- Oil
- Conducts heat to brown the coating and adds richness to the crust.
The step that matters
Dry the fish before coating and frying. Surface moisture turns to steam in hot fat, which stops the coating from browning and making it crisp, and can cause it to spatter or stick. Patting the fish dry and keeping the frying fat at a steady high temperature helps the crust set quickly and stay crisp.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, pepper, lemon):
- Parsleythe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Marjoramfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, pepper, 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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