Name: Sole Fillets Baked with Forcemeat
Ingredients: 1 medium-sized sole; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; 1 tablespoon finely-chopped suet; 2 teaspoons finely-chopped parsley; ¼ teaspoon mixed herbs; 1 egg; salt and pepper to taste; butter for greasing; pale-brown bread crumbs for topping

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sole Fillets Baked with Forcemeat

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

Wash, skin, and fillet the sole.
In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, suet, parsley, mixed herbs, and enough egg to moisten the mixture.
Spread a thin layer of forcemeat on each fillet and fold them in half.

Bake and serve

Arrange the fillets in a fireproof baking dish, filling spaces with remaining forcemeat.
Sprinkle with pale-brown bread crumbs, add small pieces of butter, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Serve in the baking dish.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 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

Sole: Forms the main body of the dish, cooking into tender, flaky fillets around the stuffing.
Egg: Binds the bread crumb and suet mixture so it holds together when spread and baked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat bulk, with pale crumbs on top helping the surface brown.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich during baking.

The step that matters

Moistening the forcemeat with egg. Too little egg leaves the crumb mixture dry and crumbly, so it will not hold on the fillets; too much makes it soggy. Add egg gradually until the mixture just holds together.

Swap the parsley

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

Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Sagefits less well
Tarragonfits less well

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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Sole Fillets Baked with Forcemeat