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Mayonnaise De Filets De Soles

A cold dish of sole fillets marinated in vinegar and set in aspic jelly with mayonnaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mayonnaise De Filets De Soles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fillets

  1. Wash the fillets of soles in cold water and drain on a napkin.

  2. Remove the skin and trim the fillets neatly.

  3. In a sauté pan, melt the clarified butter over low heat, add the fillets, and sprinkle with salt. Cook until the fillets turn white, then turn them and simmer for a few minutes.

  4. Drain the fillets on a napkin and let them cool.

  5. Cut each fillet into three pieces, each 2.5 inches long.

Marinate

  1. In an earthen dish, layer the fillets with whole parsley, sliced onion, salt, mignonette pepper, and tarragon vinegar. Cover with paper and let sit for several hours.

Assemble and serve

  1. Prepare a dish with a layer of aspic jelly and set it on ice. Fill a round mold with aspic jelly and chill for an hour.

  2. Dip the mold in warm water and turn it onto the jelly in the dish.

  3. Remove the parsley and onions from the fillets and arrange them in a circle around the jelly.

  4. Create a border of croutons of jelly around the outside.

  5. Prepare half the quantity of mayonnaise sauce and pour it in the center of the fillets.

  6. Serve immediately or keep the dish on ice until ready to serve.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles
Provide the delicate white fish fillets that form the main body of the dish.
Clarified butter
Cooks the fillets gently and adds rich fat without the milk solids that would scorch.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that firms the surface of the fish and brightens its flavour during marinating.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gelatin that holds the fillets and forms the decorative border.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savour to the fish while it marinates.

The step that matters

Cooking the fillets in butter over low heat. Low heat cooks the delicate fish gently until it just turns white, keeping it moist and tender. Higher heat would toughen the protein and brown the butter, so the fillets should be turned only once they are set.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, pepper, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper, tarragon, vinegar. 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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