Skip to main content
Main

Sole LA Normandie

A dish of sole fillets baked and served in a sauce made from fish stock, oysters, butter, flour, cream and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,039 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: flour

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 sole

  1. Skin and fillet the sole, folding each fillet over.

  2. Butter a tin dish and place the fillets in it without overlapping.

  3. Sprinkle with pepper, salt, and a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice.

  4. Butter a piece of paper thickly and cover the tin with it.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

Make the stock and sauce

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the skin and bones of the sole, herbs, bay leaf, onion, half a carrot, and ¾ pint of thin white stock or water; boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Scald the oysters in their own liquor, strain, and add the oyster liquor to the stock; boil for an additional 10 minutes.

  3. In a small saucepan, melt 1 oz. of butter and stir in 1 oz. of flour until smooth.

  4. Strain the stock into the butter and flour mixture, stirring until smooth; add 1 tablespoon of cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the fillets in a circle on a serving dish, pour the cooking liquid over them, and bring to a boil; season to taste.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks until smooth, then pour the sauce over the fillets and place the oysters in the center.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the main delicate fish fillets that are baked and served in the dish.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds flavour, and coats the dish and paper to keep the fish from sticking.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the stock with the butter into a smooth base for the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce.
Oysters
Contribute their briny liquor to the stock, flavouring the sauce, and are served on top as a garnish.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the sauce boils after they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy. Removing the pan from the heat first keeps the sauce smooth.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, carrot, turnip, onion, egg, cream, pepper):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Limeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, carrot, turnip, onion, egg, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Lemon SauceIllustrationLemon Sauce236 recipesIllustration of Carrot SoupIllustrationCarrot Soup134 recipesIllustration of Turnip SoupIllustrationTurnip Soup43 recipesIllustration of Mock Oyster SoupIllustrationMock Oyster Soup21 recipes