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SOLE, FILLETS OF (a l'Aurore)
Take up the fillets of two pairs of soles, and skin them. Have ready forcemeat quenelles, made of whitings, with the spawn of lobsters put in, to give colour. Spread this forcemeat over each fillet, then roll them in the same manner as the paupiettes (see SOLE, PAUPIETTES OF FILLETS OF). Next skewer them with silver skewers, three on each skewer; dust a little pepper and salt over them. Season the forcemeat rather highly. Lay the skewered fillets in a baking-pan, cover them with layers of bacon, and bake them. When done, take them off the skewers, pare the forcemeat that has protruded, and dish them neatly. With a part of the pounded lobsters' spawn which you have kept aside mix two spoonfuls of strong stock deprived of all fat, and a good lump of fresh butter; drain the whole through a tamis, that it may be fine. Add to it a little essence of anchovies, with pepper, salt, and lemon-juice. Keep the sauce very hot, and cover the fillets with it. Observe-all the bacon must be taken off.
A late-Victorian rendering of a French haute-cuisine dish: rolled sole fillets stuffed with whiting mousseline and sauced with lobster coral butter. Almost all the difficulty is in the sauce, which is a butter emulsion and must never approach a simmer.
- The hinge: the sauceThe coral, stock and butter are warmed only enough to melt and thicken; the recipe asks only that the sauce be kept very hot, not boiled. Overheating breaks the butter and granulates the coral proteins, dulling the rose colour that names the dish, so whisk the butter in off the heat and keep the pan well below a simmer.
- Quantities"Two pairs of soles" means four fish; since a sole yields four fillets, that is sixteen fillets, though the recipe gives no portion count. Two spoonfuls of stock is roughly two tablespoons; "a good lump of fresh butter" is not quantified and no exact weight can be recovered from the text.
- Lobster spawnThis is the raw coral (roe) from a hen lobster, dark green when raw and coral-red once heated. Fishmongers rarely sell it separately now; buy whole hen lobsters, or substitute the roe from cooked lobster pounded with butter. Some cooks use a little tomato paste or paprika for colour, but the flavour is not the same.
- Forcemeat quenellesThe whiting forcemeat is pounded to a smooth paste (a food processor does it in seconds), probably bound with egg and cream in the manner of period quenelle mixtures, and seasoned firmly as the text insists. Chill it hard before spreading or it will slump out of the rolls.
- Bacon as barding, not flavouringThe "layers of bacon" are there to keep the fish moist, and the final line is emphatic that they come off; period bacon was often green (unsmoked). Modern smoked streaky bacon will overwhelm sole; use fatback, lardo, or simply buttered parchment.
- Oven and timingNo temperature is given. Bake at 375F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the forcemeat reads 145F at the centre. Sole fillets this thin are easily overcooked, and dry rolls cannot be rescued by the sauce.
- SkewersSilver skewers served for cooking and, in some dishes, for presentation, though here they are drawn out before dishing; short metal or soaked wooden skewers do the same job, or tie each paupiette with kitchen string. Trim the protruding forcemeat before dishing, as directed.
- TamisA tamis is a drum sieve of stretched cloth or fine mesh. A fine chinois or a doubled square of muslin gives the same result: the sauce must be pressed through so no fibre of coral remains.
- Essence of anchoviesA Victorian bottled anchovy extract. A scant teaspoon of anchovy paste, or a few drops of good fish sauce, replaces it; add it at the end and taste, since it carries a great deal of salt.
A l'Aurore means "dawn" and in French cookery describes a dish tinted rose-pink, most often by lobster coral, tomato or paprika worked into a butter or a velouté. Before tomato purée and Hungarian paprika were staples of the English kitchen, pounded lobster spawn was one of several colourings used for such sauces, alongside cochineal and beetroot, and cooks also pressed it into beurre de homard for garnishing fish. The technique here, spreading a fish mousseline on a fillet and rolling it into a paupiette, belongs to the professional French repertoire that Cassell's set out to translate for households with a cook and a fishmonger's account, while the lobster and the silver skewers marked the dish as company food.