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SOLE (a la Meuniere)
Clean, skin, and empty a fine fresh sole, cut away the fins and gills, and with a sharp knife make four gashes right across it on both sides. Rub into these a little salt and chopped onion; dip the sole in flour, and broil it over a clear but gentle fire. Lay it on a hot dish, rub it well on both sides with a slice of fresh butter which has been mixed with the juice of a lemon and a little cayenne, put it in a brisk oven for a minute or two, and serve very hot. Time, ten to fifteen minutes, according to thickness. Probable cost, 1s. to 1s. 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A whole grilled sole finished with lemon-cayenne butter. Despite the name, there is no pan-frying here at all, which is worth knowing before you start.
- The hinge: gentle heat, no crowding of colour"A clear but gentle fire" means glowing coals with no flame, not a screaming broiler. Set a gas grill to medium or place the fish 5-6 inches below an electric element so the flesh cooks through in the ten to fifteen minutes given rather than scorching in four.
- "A brisk oven"A hot oven, roughly 425-450F by modern reckoning. It is used only to melt and set the butter over the hot fish for a minute or two, so preheat it before the sole goes on the grill.
- The gashes are functionalFour cuts across the fish on each side let the salt and onion penetrate and help heat reach the thick part along the spine. The recipe does not specify how deep to cut.
- Not meuniere as now understoodModern a la meuniere is floured fish cooked in foaming butter in a pan, then dressed with lemon and browned butter. Cassell's version keeps the flour and the lemon butter but grills the fish. If you want the pan version, use clarified butter and cook 3-4 minutes a side.
- Fish to buyA true Dover sole of 12-14 oz serves one to two; the recipe's "fine fresh sole" feeding three or four implies a large fish of 2 lb or more, now expensive and rare. Whole lemon sole, plaice or flounder of similar weight grill the same way, though the flesh is softer and needs careful turning.
- SkinningThe dark upper skin pulls off cleanly if you nick it at the tail and drag it toward the head with a cloth or paper towel for grip. Leave the white underside skin on, as it holds the fish together on the grill.
- The butterMash 2-3 oz softened butter with lemon juice (the recipe calls for the juice of a whole lemon; use less if you prefer) and a pinch of cayenne. Chopped parsley is the usual modern addition and is entirely in keeping.
- DonenessThe flesh should lift from the backbone with no translucency at the thickest point. The recipe allows ten to fifteen minutes according to thickness, the longer time for a thick fish.
- "1s. to 1s. 6d."One shilling to one and sixpence, the cost of the fish as the book gives it in the later nineteenth century.
Cassell's places this among its long alphabetical run of sole dishes, of which the Victorian repertoire had dozens: au gratin, Colbert, Normande, in aspic, fried in crumbs. Meuniere means "miller's wife", and the name is generally traced to the light coating of flour that gives the dish its character, the miller's contribution to an otherwise simple fish. That the compiler here grills rather than fries suggests how loosely the French label was applied in English kitchens of the period, where the words on the menu often signalled the lemon-and-butter finish rather than any particular method. Sole itself was the fish of choice for the English dinner table, and it was a commonplace of the period that the fish improves for a day out of the water, unlike most flatfish.