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Lemon Sole with Crab & Tarragon Butter Sauce

This whole baked fish looks impressive on a platter for sharing, served simply with potatoes and greens

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Why it works: Butter and lemon sole work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 29 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 2
Prep20 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: fish

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Lay the sole in a buttered ovenproof dish, and arrange the lemon slices over the top of the fish.

  2. Dot the sole with about half the softened butter. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the thickest part is opaque and flakes easily or reaches 145°F (63°C).

  3. While the fish bakes, melt the remaining butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the white wine and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until reduced by about half.

  4. Stir in the double cream, capers, lemon zest and chopped tarragon. Simmer gently for 2 minutes until slightly thickened.

  5. Gently fold the crab meat into the sauce and warm through for 1 minute without breaking it up.

  6. Transfer the sole to warm plates, spoon the crab and tarragon butter sauce over the fish, and serve immediately.

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.

  1. Butter + lemon soletop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tarragon + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together884 recipes

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

  3. Crab + meattop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Tarragon + caperstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Pepperbetter flavor fit
  4. 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).