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Baked Soles

Baked soles coated in butter, egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Baked Soles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wipe the cleaned soles dry and let them rest for at least 1 hour, wrapped in a clean cloth.

  2. Mix the melted butter with the beaten egg.

  3. Brush the soles with the butter and egg mixture.

Coat and bake

  1. Cover the fish with the seasoned bread crumbs.

  2. Pour 1-2 teaspoons of liquid butter into a flat dish and place the fish in it.

  3. Sprinkle a little more melted butter on top and press the bread crumbs lightly with a knife.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish gently on the dish.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
The main fish, whose delicate flesh cooks through gently in the oven.
Egg
Binds the butter to the surface so the bread crumbs stick to the fish.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, helping the crumb coating brown and keeping the fish from drying.
Fine dry bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that protects the delicate fish while it bakes.

The step that matters

Pressing the bread crumbs lightly. Light pressure helps the crumbs adhere to the buttered surface so they form an even crust. Pressing too hard compacts the coating and can make it dense rather than crisp.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, bread, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, bread, pepper, nutmeg. 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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