Name: Soles, a LA Colbert
Ingredients: 4 soles; lemon juice; Maitre d’ Hotel butter (see recipe No. 44); essence of fish or anchovies

Why it works: Butter and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Soles, a LA Colbert

Ingredients

4 soles
lemon juice
Maitre d’ Hotel butter (see recipe No. 44)
essence of fish or anchovies

Directions

Clean and dry the soles with a clean cloth.
Make a cut along the back and carefully remove the backbone.
Fill the inside with Maitre d’ Hotel butter.
Pour over essence of fish or anchovies.
Serve hot.

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.

Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Lemon + fishtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,889 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).