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Dressed Fish

A sole fillet baked with tomato sauce, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, butter, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dressed Fish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sole

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes thinly.

  2. Layer the sliced tomatoes over the sole alternately.

  3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, butter, and some bread crumbs mixed with Parmesan.

  4. Pour the tomato sauce around the sole.

Bake

  1. Cover with buttered paper.

  2. Cook in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for about 10 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Delicate white fish flesh that turns opaque and flaky as its proteins set when heated.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and gentle acidity, keeping the fish from drying as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that becomes crisp and golden in the oven.
Parmesan cheese
Browns in the oven and adds savoury, salty flavour to the crumb topping.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the topping brown and taste rounder.

The step that matters

Cover with buttered paper. Sole is thin and lean, so it cooks quickly and can dry out. The buttered paper traps steam around the fish, keeping it moist while the topping heats through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, bread, tomato, sauce, flour, pepper, egg):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, bread, tomato, sauce, flour, pepper, egg. 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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