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Deessed Fish

A sole fillet topped with butter, bread crumbs, and brown sauce, baked and served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Deessed Fish

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. Squeeze lemon juice over the sole, season with salt and pepper.

  2. Sprinkle browned bread crumbs over the fish.

  3. Dot the fish with small pieces of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the sole in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 minutes.

  2. Transfer the fish to a clean dish.

  3. Warm the sauce and pour it around the fish.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the main protein that the crumbs and butter sit on and cook through.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the oven and protects the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the crumbs brown and the fish stay tender.
Brown sauce
Provides a savoury, deep-flavoured sauce served alongside the fish.

The step that matters

Bake the sole in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 minutes. Fish cooks quickly and turns dry and firm once overcooked, so checking it at the set time keeps the flesh moist and tender while the crumbs brown.

“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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