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Baked Soles

Baked soles are fish fillets coated with butter, egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs, then baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Baked Soles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Skin, clean, and dry the soles.

  2. Wrap the fish in a clean cloth and let it rest for one hour.

Coat the fish

  1. Beat the egg and mix in 1 oz of warmed butter.

  2. Brush the fish all over with the egg and butter mixture.

  3. Combine the seasoning with the bread crumbs and cover the fish well.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat butter in a baking tin and place the fish inside.

  2. Add a small piece of butter on top of the fish.

  3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  4. Serve with shrimp or anchovy sauce.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
The main fish, which cooks through gently under the coating and stays moist.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns in the oven and holds the coating in place.
Egg
Binds the coating and helps the crumbs stick evenly to the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Covering the fish well with the crumb mixture. If the crumbs leave bare patches, those areas can dry out while baking. An even coat of egg and butter helps the crumbs stick and protects the flesh from drying out.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, egg, nutmeg. 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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