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Sole, Roulettes Of
Choose fine fish: remove the heads, fins, and tails. Strip the fish from the bone. Cut small oblong fillets; lay these in a marinade of salt, pepper, lemon-juice, and a grate of nutmeg, for half an hour. Roll the fillets egg-shaped, and bind them with thread. Pack closely together in a stewpan with a little water or broth, adding some butter and lemon-juice. Cover them closely, and stew gently till done enough. Serve the roulettes in their own sauce, or glaze them brown and serve as ragout.
A plain braise of sole fillets, rolled and poached in their own liquor. The whole thing hinges on how briefly the fish is cooked.
- "Till done enough"Thin sole fillets rolled up cook through in roughly 6-8 minutes at a bare simmer. The flesh should be opaque and just yielding; past that it tightens, weeps and loses the point of using sole at all.
- Fish and yieldTwo Dover sole of about 12 oz each, or four large lemon sole fillets, give eight to twelve roulettes, enough for four as a starter or two as a main. Ask the fishmonger to skin and fillet them and take the frame for stock.
- Marinade timingHalf an hour in salt and lemon juice is the upper limit for fish this thin. The acid begins to firm and whiten the surface, so 15 minutes is safer if the fillets are slender.
- BindingThread means plain cotton kitchen string, tied loosely so the roll does not split as it sets. A wooden cocktail stick through the seam works as well and comes out more easily. Nothing synthetic.'
- StewpanA wide, shallow saute pan with a lid rather than a deep pot suits 'pack closely together'; the rolls can be set so they support each other, with only enough liquid to come part way up, since the recipe calls for just a little water or broth. Cut a round of parchment to sit directly on them if the lid is loose.
- The sauceThe cooking liquid will be thin. Lift the fish out, reduce the liquor hard for a minute or two, then whisk in cold butter off the heat to give it body. Fish stock in place of water makes a noticeable difference.
- Glazing brownThe alternative finish most likely means brushing the poached roulettes with reduced, buttery liquor and colouring them briefly under a hot grill or salamander. Two or three minutes at most, close to the heat.
- Nutmeg"A grate" is a light one over the whole quantity of fish, perhaps an eighth of a teaspoon. Nutmeg turns up often with white fish in Victorian recipes, and it dominates quickly.
Sole was the aristocrat of the English fish counter in the late nineteenth century, and Victorian cookery dictionaries carry a great many sole recipes: Dover sole travelled well, held its shape, and had firm enough flesh to be filleted, rolled, stuffed and dressed in numerous named ways. "Roulette" here appears to mean simply a small roll; it and roulade both come from the French rouler, to roll, rather than one being a variant of the other. The more usual term in later English kitchens is paupiette, a rolled fillet bound and poached. The instruction to serve the fish either in its own light sauce or glazed brown as a ragout reflects how these dictionaries worked: one preparation, two finishes, so the same fish could appear as a delicate entree or as something closer to a made dish in a larger meal. The marinade of lemon, pepper and nutmeg is characteristic of Victorian fish cookery, which often leaned on acid and grated spice rather than herbs to season white flesh.