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Sole a LA Portugaise

A baked sole fillet topped with butter, shallot, parsley, bread crumbs, tomatoes, onion, cheese, and tomato ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: fish

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Skin the sole (or flounder) and make an incision down the back.

  3. Stuff the fish with a mixture of butter, shallot, parsley, and bread crumbs.

  4. Place the fish on a buttered baking pan.

Top and bake

  1. Cover with sliced tomatoes, onion, cheese, and additional bread crumbs.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Pour tomato ketchup around the fish.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,718 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,955 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and helps the topping brown.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and form a crisp, golden crust over the fish.
Cheese
Melts over the topping and browns during baking.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity to the sauce that forms around the fish.

The step that matters

Pour tomato ketchup around the fish. Ketchup is thick and sugary, so it can scorch if it pools in the hot pan. Pouring it around the fish, not on the delicate flesh, keeps the sauce even and the fish moist as it bakes.

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, bread, tomato, onion, cheese, pepper):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, bread, tomato, onion, cheese, pepper. 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).

“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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