Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Curried Soles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the onion and curry
Gently fry the sliced onion in butter until browned.
Drain the browned onion on a sieve.
In the same pan, mix curry powder, salt, and flour.
Cook the fish
Remove the flesh from the soles, dividing each fish once or twice without boning.
Rub half the curry mixture onto the soles.
Fry the soles quickly.
Place the fried soles on the drained onion.
Add boiling water or broth.
Boil for 1 minute.
When it begins to simmer, stir in the remaining curry mixture mixed with a few spoons of cold broth or water.
Stew the curry gently for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add lemon juice or chili vinegar.
Serve hot.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Soles
- The fish forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the curry sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the dominant spice flavour and aroma of the dish.
- Onion
- Browned first, it adds sweetness and depth to the curry base.
- Flour
- Thickens the curry sauce as it stews, giving it body.
- Lemon juice or chili vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced curry.
The step that matters
Stirring in the curry mixture as the liquid simmers. Flour mixed into curry powder and cold liquid thickens unevenly if it is added to a fully boiling or lumpy sauce. Adding it as the liquid just begins to simmer, with the cold liquid stirred in first, lets it disperse and thicken smoothly as the curry stews.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, flour, butter):
- Avocadofits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, flour, butter. 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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