Name: Soles, or Other Fish, to Fry
Ingredients: 2 large soles; ½ loaf stale bread (for breadcrumbs); 1 egg; fresh sweet olive oil or clarified butter (for frying)

Why it works: Bread and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,091 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Soles, or Other Fish, to Fry

Ingredients

2 large soles
½ loaf stale bread (for breadcrumbs)
1 egg
fresh sweet olive oil or clarified butter (for frying)

Directions

Ensure the soles are fresh. Wash them thoroughly and wrap in a clean cloth to dry for an hour.
Prepare breadcrumbs by rubbing stale bread through a colander or hair-sieve.
Beat the yolk and white of the egg together on a plate.
Flour the fish to absorb moisture, then wipe off excess flour with a clean cloth.
Dip the fish in the egg on both sides or use a paste brush to apply it evenly.
Cover the fish with breadcrumbs, ensuring all parts are coated, then shake off excess crumbs.
Heat a quart or more of olive oil or clarified butter in a frying pan.

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.

Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + olivetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,340 recipes

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