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Soles Normandes

Soles Normandes is a French dish of sole fillets cooked with butter, wine, oysters, mushrooms, and a béarnaise-like sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Soles Normandes

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the skin from the soles and wipe them clean.

  2. Place the soles in a long dish with butter, wine, oysters, and mushrooms.

  3. Cook the soles until done, then remove them from the dish.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter the size of an egg in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Add flour to the melted butter and mix well until golden.

  3. Stir in half a cup of the cooking liquid until the sauce is smooth.

  4. Remove from heat and add the beaten yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the soles in a fireproof dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over them.

  3. Arrange the mushrooms around.

  4. Bake in a warm oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.

  5. 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. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
The main fish, cooked gently in butter, wine and its own juices.
Butter
Enriches the dish and forms the base of the sauce with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a smooth sauce that coats the fish.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, giving it body and a richer texture.
Oysters
Add briny flavour to the cooking liquid that goes into the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before adding them keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

“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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