Name: Soles, or Other Fish, to Fry
Ingredients: 2 large soles (or other fish); ½ loaf stale bread (for breadcrumbs); 1 egg; flour (for dusting); coarse sea salt (to taste); oil or butter (for frying)

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 ↓

Soles, or Other Fish, to Fry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Ensure the fish is fresh. Wash thoroughly and wrap in a clean cloth to dry for 1 hour.
Prepare breadcrumbs by rubbing stale bread through a colander or hair-sieve.
Beat the egg yolk and white together on a plate.

Coat and fry

Dust the fish with flour to absorb moisture, then wipe off excess.
Dip the fish in the egg on both sides or use a paste brush to apply it evenly.
Strew breadcrumbs over the fish, ensuring they stick well.
Heat oil or butter in a pan and fry the fish until golden brown on both sides.

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).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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 is the main component, cooked through while the coating crisps around it.
Stale bread: Dry crumbs give the fish a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Egg: Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the fish.
Flour: A light dusting absorbs surface moisture so the egg coating adheres evenly.

The step that matters

Drying the fish before coating. Surface moisture stops flour and egg from sticking and turns the coating soggy or patchy. Drying the fish well helps the crumbs stay on and fry crisp.

“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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Soles, or Other Fish, to Fry