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Sole a LA Colbert

A sole fillet served with maitre‑d’hotel butter, fried parsley, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sole a LA Colbert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the sole according to the directions for fried sole.

  2. Carefully remove the bone without breaking the fish.

Finish and serve

  1. Fill the cavity with maitre‑d’hotel butter and serve before it melts.

  2. Garnish with fried parsley and cut lemon.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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, cooked whole after the bone is removed.
Maitre‑d’hotel butter
Adds fat and rich flavour as it melts into the cavity of the hot fish.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and mild fish.

The step that matters

Removing the bone without breaking the fish. Fish flesh is delicate and flakes easily once cooked, so a careful, steady hand keeps the fillets intact and the fish looking whole for serving.

“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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