Name: Lemon Sole with Crab & Tarragon Butter Sauce
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients: 50g butter , softened; 1 tbsp chopped tarragon leaves; 50g/2oz crab , half white meat, half brown; 1 lemon , zested, then cut into thin slices; 1 large whole lemon sole or 2 small ones, descaled and gutted (ask your fishmonger to do this), washed and dried; 50ml white wine; 1 tbsp capers , drained and rinsed; 2 tbsp double cream

Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 884 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2

Prep20 min

Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

50g butter, softened
1 tbsp chopped tarragon leaves
50g/2oz crab, half white meat, half brown
1 lemon, zested, then cut into thin slices
1 large whole lemon sole or 2 small ones, descaled and gutted (ask your fishmonger to do this), washed and dried
50ml white wine
1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp double cream

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tarragon + lemontop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together884 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Crab + meattop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together5,039 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Tarragon + caperstop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together267 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tarragon + white winetop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together342 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tarragon, crab, meat, lemon, lemon sole, white wine):

Parsleybetter flavor fit
Thymebetter flavor fit
Pepperbetter flavor fit
Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tarragon, crab, meat, lemon, lemon sole, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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