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Soles, Fricasseed

A French-style fish dish of soles served in a seasoned gravy with bread crumbs and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 ↓

Soles, Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the soles until golden brown and drain excess fat.

  2. Remove the meat from the small sole, chop finely, and mix with lemon peel, parsley, grated bread, and seasoning.

Form and fry the balls

  1. Combine the mixture with the egg yolk and butter, then form into small balls and fry them.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with 2 teaspoons of flour, add port wine, cayenne, and lemon juice.

  2. Add the two soles and the balls to the gravy and let simmer gently for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve hot, garnished with 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
Provide the main fish flesh that gives the dish its body and flaky texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the chopped fish mixture so it holds together as balls and sets when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the fish balls brown and carry flavour.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the fish mixture a softer, lighter structure.
Good gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, supplying moisture and savoury depth.
Port wine
Adds a rich, fruity flavour to the thickened gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Fish flesh toughens and breaks apart when the liquid boils, so the soles and balls should cook at a gentle simmer for the stated 5 minutes.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, butter, port wine):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, butter, port wine. 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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