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Sole Fritters

Sole fillets marinated in vinegar, olive oil, chives, parsley, salt, and pepper, then battered and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sole Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fillet the soles and cut them in half crosswise.

  2. Place the fillets in a deep dish with vinegar, olive oil, chives, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  3. Marinate for 1 hour, turning frequently.

  4. Ten minutes before serving, drain the fillets.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the fillets in frying batter, then into hot oil.

  2. Fry for 5 to 6 minutes until golden.

  3. Drain and serve on a hot dish with tartare sauce.

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

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

  2. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  4. Chive + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Olive + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
Provide the white fish fillets that form the main body of the fritters.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade lightly flavours the fish and firms its surface before frying.
Olive oil
Carries the herbs through the marinade and adds a little richness to the fish.
Frying batter (in the method)
Forms a crisp golden coating that seals in moisture while the fish cooks.

The step that matters

Drain the fillets before frying. Excess marinade and surface moisture on the fish steam and splatter in hot oil and can make the batter slide off or fry unevenly. Draining just before dipping helps the batter adhere and brown well.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, parsley, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, parsley, pepper, vinegar. 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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