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A sole fillet stuffed with a forcemeat of breadcrumbs, herbs, cod roe, and spices, baked with tomato and capsicum juices and finished with Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and capsicum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,520 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cookery Up-to-date

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the forcemeat by mixing bread crumbs, fine herbs, cod's roe, cayenne, salt, and egg until firm.

  2. Stuff the sole with the forcemeat and place it in a Dutch oven over a clear fire.

Cook and serve

  1. Surround the sole with small balls of the forcemeat and pour melted butter mixed with tomato and capsicum juice over it.

  2. Baste the fish continually until it turns golden yellow.

  3. A few minutes before serving, add Madeira to the dripping pan, stir until boiling, and serve hot with 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. Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + capsicumtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together firmly around the fish.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and absorb moisture, giving the forcemeat a soft, firm body.
Melted butter
Carries fat over the fish, promoting even browning and a golden color.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth to the pan juices when boiled down with the drippings.

The step that matters

Baste the fish continually until it turns golden yellow. Frequent basting keeps the surface moist while the butter and juices brown it, so the fish stays tender instead of drying out before it colors.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, roe, pepper, egg, butter, capsicum):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, roe, pepper, egg, butter, capsicum. 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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