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Sole a LA Normande

Baked sole served with a white sauce flavored with tarragon vinegar and chopped herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sole a LA Normande

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Place the fish on a greased baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes or until cooked through.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, reduce the tarragon vinegar.

  2. Add the white sauce to the reduced vinegar and mix well.

  3. Stir in the chopped herbs and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Once the fish is done, transfer it to a serving dish and pour the sauce over it.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sole
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks to flaky, tender fish in the oven.
White sauce
Provides a creamy, rich coating that adds moisture and body to the fish.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts the richness of the sauce and gives it a bright flavour.

The step that matters

Reduce the tarragon vinegar. Reducing concentrates the vinegar and mellows its sharpness, so the sauce tastes balanced rather than harsh when it is combined with the white sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, tarragon, vinegar, chervil, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Fennelfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, tarragon, vinegar, chervil, pepper. 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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