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Sole, Filleted and Rolled
Take a large sole and half a pint of freshly-boiled and picked shrimps. Pound the shrimps with a third of their bulk in fresh butter, two table-spoonfuls of fine bread-crumbs, and a high seasoning of mace and cayenne. Fillet the sole, and divide the pounded shrimps into four portions. Spread a portion upon each fillet, roll it up from the tail to the head, and tie it with twine. Lay the rolls in a thickly-buttered baking-dish, sprinkle bread-crumbs thickly over them, pour clarified butter upon them, and add a wine-glassful of clear stock and half a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy. Bake the soles in a moderate oven. When done enough, take up the soles, mix a little lemon-juice with the sauce, and strain it over the fish. Time to bake, ten to twelve minutes. Probable cost, one large sole, 1s. 6d. or more. Sufficient for four persons.
A Victorian shrimp-stuffed sole, straightforward once the archaic measures and the English shellfish are translated. The whole dish stands or falls on the fillets being thin and evenly rolled, so they cook through in the short bake the recipe allows.
- Half a pint of shrimpsThis is a volume of picked (peeled) shrimp meat: half an imperial pint, so nearer 1¼ cups, roughly 5 oz. The original assumes tiny English brown shrimps sold ready-boiled; small cold-water shrimp or chopped cooked prawns give a similar texture.
- A third of their bulk in butterNot a third of the weight but a third of the volume — about 1/3 cup, or 5-6 tablespoons of softened butter. The mixture should be a spreadable paste, not a loose stuffing.
- PoundingA mortar was the Victorian tool; a food processor does it in seconds. Stop while some shrimp texture remains, or the filling turns to a pink paste.
- Moderate ovenUsually read as somewhere around 350F. The rolls are thin and the bake is short, so have the oven fully up to heat before they go in.
- A wine-glassfulIn Victorian cookery books this is about 2 fl oz, a quarter cup. It is there to keep the dish from drying and to give you a sauce, not to poach the fish.
- Essence of anchovyA commercial salted anchovy extract, still sold as anchovy essence in Britain. Anchovy paste from a tube is the closest substitute, used in the same half-teaspoon quantity; it is salty, so season the shrimp butter accordingly.
- MaceThe lacy outer covering of nutmeg, milder and more floral. Ground mace is the intended form; a scant quarter teaspoon suits four fillets, and nutmeg at half that amount will stand in.
- Filleting and tyingOne large sole yields four fillets, two from each side. Skin them, roll from the narrow tail end, and secure with kitchen twine or a cocktail stick — the roll will loosen and unwind as the flesh sets otherwise.
- DonenessTen to twelve minutes is right for fillets from a genuinely large sole. Check the thickest roll: the flesh should be opaque throughout, 145F at the centre.
- YieldFour small servings as written, and better treated as a first course than a main. Lemon juice goes into the pan sauce off the heat, then strain over the fish.
Cassell's belongs to the era when sole was the aristocrat of English fish cookery, and rolled fillets — paupiettes, in the French idiom that dominated grand Victorian kitchens — were one of the standard ways to dress it up for the table. The shrimp-and-butter forcemeat draws on a very English larder habit: potted shrimps, pounded with butter and mace and sealed under a clarified layer, were a Lancashire staple — Morecambe Bay is the best-documented centre — long before this book, and the seasoning here is essentially potted-shrimp seasoning transferred to a stuffing. Essence of anchovy, likewise, was the everyday umami of nineteenth-century British cooking, sold bottled by grocers and splashed into fish sauces the way soy or fish sauce might be used now. The costing — one shilling and sixpence for a large sole — is a reminder of how these dictionaries were used: a household manager was expected to price a dish before ordering it, and Cassell's gave the figure for nearly every entry.