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Sole a LA Normande

Whole sole stewed with oysters and mussels in a wine and water liquor, finished with a sauce thickened with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Sole a LA Normande

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 fish

  1. Lay the Sole flat in a fish kettle.

  2. Sprinkle parsley, onion, salt, pepper, mace, and thyme over the Sole.

  3. Remove gills from oysters and clean mussels; place them on the Sole.

  4. Moisten with equal parts white wine and water, cover, and stew gently by the fire.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the Sole on a deep dish, arrange oysters and mussels around it, and pour the sauce over.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes, removing before browning occurs.

  3. Fry smelts in butter, cook truffles in white wine, and mushrooms in lemon juice.

  4. Cut small shapes from a French roll and fry in butter until golden brown.

  5. Garnish the Sole with smelts, truffles, mushrooms, and croutons, and serve.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Thyme + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,503 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Is the main fish, cooked gently in liquid to stay moist and tender.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they gently set with heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Oysters
Contribute briny, savoury flavour to the stewing liquid and the finished sauce.
Mussels
Add briny, savoury flavour to the stewing liquid and the finished sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid, balancing the richness of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and browning, giving the smelts and croutons a golden, savoury crust.

The step that matters

Removing the fish from the oven before browning. Egg yolks in the sauce can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the dish should be baked only briefly and kept from browning, which keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, onion, pepper, thyme, oyster, white wine, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, onion, pepper, thyme, oyster, white wine, 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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