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Consommé of Soles

A clear fish consommé made with sole, stock, vegetables, and egg whites, served hot with sole flakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and chicken work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 190 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Consommé of Soles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil fish bones and trimmings in white stock for 30 minutes, skimming constantly.

  2. Strain the stock.

  3. Let the stock cool.

  4. Mix the cooled stock with 3 pints of good white stock and remove all fat.

Clarify

  1. Add egg whites and shells to the stock in a clean pan.

  2. Whisk the mixture over heat until a stiff froth forms on top.

  3. Remove the whisk and bring the mixture to a boil twice.

  4. Let the mixture stand still for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture through a clean kitchen towel.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with neat flakes of sole.

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. Fish + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones and trimmings of a fish
Release savoury fish flavor into the stock during the long simmer.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the dish.
Eggs
Whites coagulate into a raft that traps cloudy particles, leaving the consommé clear.
Vegetables
Add aromatic flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Let the egg raft form undisturbed. Once the whisk is removed, the egg whites set into a raft that traps cloudy particles. Stirring or disturbing it breaks the raft, so particles pass through and the consommé stays cloudy.

“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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