Why it works: Sherry and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fillet of Sole a LA Normande
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a baking tin and place the fillets of sole inside.
Add sherry, consommé, and a sprinkling of coarse sea salt.
Bake and serve
Cover the tin with oiled paper and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove the tin from the oven, take off the paper, and pour Sauce à la Normande over the fillets.
Return to the oven for 5 minutes and serve in the baking tin.
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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Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,097 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sole fillets
- Provide the delicate white fish that is gently cooked through in the liquid.
- Sherry
- Adds aromatic flavour and acidity to the poaching liquid.
- Consommé
- Supplies savoury, meaty liquid that moistens the fish as it cooks.
- Sauce à la normande
- Adds richness and a creamy, flavourful topping over the fillets.
The step that matters
Covering the tin with oiled paper. The paper traps steam so the fish cooks gently in its liquid and stays moist. Leaving it uncovered lets the surface dry and toughen before the fillets are done.
“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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