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Curried Soles

A fish dish of soles simmered in a curry-flavored broth with onion and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,404 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Curried Soles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the onion thinly.

  2. Fry the sliced onion gently in a small amount of butter until browned.

  3. Drain the fried onion on a sieve.

  4. In a stewpan, mix the curry powder, salt, and flour.

  5. Remove the flesh from the soles into fillets or use heads and tails from small soles.

  6. Divide each fish into halves without boning.

  7. Rub half of the curry powder mixture onto the soles.

  8. Fry the soles quickly and lightly.

  9. Place the fried soles on the drained onion in the stewpan.

Make the curry

  1. Add boiling water or broth to the pan. Shake the pan and boil for one minute.

  2. When it begins to simmer, stir in the remaining curry powder. Add a few tablespoons of cold broth or water.

  3. Stew the curry gently for 15 to 20 minutes.

  4. Add lemon juice or chili vinegar.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 through gently in the curry sauce.
Onion
Browned slices add sweetness and savory depth to the sauce base.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced flavor and aroma of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the curry sauce so it clings to the fish.
Lemon juice or chili vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced curry.

The step that matters

Frying the soles quickly and lightly. Fish flesh is delicate and toughens or breaks apart with overcooking. A brief, light fry sets the surface so the fish holds its shape while it finishes gently in the simmering curry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, lemon):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, lemon. 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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