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Sole a LA Cardinal

A baked sole fillet rolled with whiting, shrimp, and a pink cream mixture, topped with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sole a LA Cardinal

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillets

  1. Skin and fillet the sole, then cut each fillet in half and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  2. Pound the flesh of the whiting and shrimp, then rub through a sieve.

  3. Add melted butter, cream, egg white, and seasoning to the mixture, coloring it a light pink.

Roll and bake

  1. Spread a little of the mixture over each fillet, roll them up, and fasten with string.

  2. Place the rolls in a buttered baking tin, cover with buttered paper, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from the oven, discard the string, and cover with white sauce mixed with 1 tablespoon lobster spawn, rubbed through a sieve.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,931 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Whiting + shrimptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the delicate wrapping around the filling, cooking to a tender, flaky texture.
Egg white
Helps bind the pounded fish mixture so it sets firm when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish mixture and keeps the rolls from drying out.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the pounded fish filling.
Whiting
Pounded into the filling to give a smooth, light body.

The step that matters

Pound and sieve the filling. Pounding and rubbing the whiting and shrimp through a sieve breaks down the fibers into a smooth paste. Lumps or coarse texture would make the filling uneven and less able to bind when baked.

“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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