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Fried Soles in the English Way

Fried soles are fish fillets coated in egg and stale bread crumbs, then fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Soles in the English Way

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the soles as directed in the previous recipe.

  2. Brush the soles with egg, then dredge them with stale bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in boiling butter until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating to the fish so it adheres during frying.
Stale bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the delicate fish during frying.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the coating.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling butter. The butter must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it crisps, and the delicate fish may overcook.

“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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