Name: Fried Soles
Ingredients: small soles; coarse sea salt; bread crumbs; plain melted butter; shrimp or anchovy sauce

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

Ingredients

Directions

Heat oil in a pan until it bubbles. Test with a small piece of bread; if it browns quickly, the oil is ready.
Shake off loose crumbs from the soles before placing them in the pan.
Fry the soles until they are firm and amber-colored on one side, then carefully turn them to brown the other side.
Remove the soles and dry them on a soft cloth or press lightly with hot blotting paper.
Serve immediately on a drainer covered with a hot napkin, accompanied by shrimp or anchovy sauce and plain melted butter.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + shrimptop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Bread + shrimptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together360 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).