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Sole Aux Fines Herbes

Baked sole served with a white sauce of tarragon vinegar and finely chopped parsley, tarragon, and chervil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sole Aux Fines Herbes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat the vinegar, then add the white sauce and mix well.

  2. Stir in the chopped herbs and season to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Place the fish on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until done.

  3. Once the fish is done, place it on a serving dish and pour the sauce over it.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + cherviltop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
The main fish, which turns flaky and opaque as it cooks through.
White sauce
Adds creamy body and moisture that coats the fish.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds a sharp, aromatic acidity that brightens the sauce.
Mixed herbs
Parsley, tarragon and chervil add fresh aroma and flavour to the sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, tarragon, vinegar, chervil):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, tarragon, vinegar, chervil. 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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