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Broiled Sole, Colbert-sauce

Broiled sole coated in butter and breadcrumbs, served with Colbert sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Broiled Sole, Colbert-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the black skin from the sole.

  2. Cut off the bony part of the head at a slant.

  3. Wash the sole and pat it dry.

  4. Split the sole on both sides in the middle.

Cook and serve

  1. Season the sole, roll it in melted butter and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Broil the sole over moderate heat, turning it occasionally.

  3. Serve with Colbert sauce either around the fish or in a sauceboat.

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

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Sole
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to flaky white flesh under the heat.
Melted butter
Carries the bread crumbs and adds fat that promotes gentle browning on the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a golden crust that helps protect the delicate fish while broiling.
Colbert sauce
Adds the main sauce flavour and moisture to the broiled fish.

The step that matters

Broil the sole over moderate heat, turning it occasionally. Delicate fish dries out or overcooks quickly under direct heat. Turning it occasionally helps the coating brown evenly while the flesh cooks through gently, keeping it moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, sauce. 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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