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SOLE, STEWED (another way)
Clean, skin, and scale a pair of soles, and then stew them as before with as much boiling water as will cover them, an onion stuck with two cloves, fifteen peppercorns, and fifteen berries of allspice. Let them simmer for a quarter of an hour. Put into a separate sauce-pan half a pint of milk or cream, the thin rind of a small lemon, a little salt and cayenne, and a thickening of flour and butter. Strain into this sauce half the liquor in which the fish was boiled, lift the soles into it, and let them simmer in it ten minutes. Lift the soles into a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, garnish with toasted sippets, and serve. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, if milk be used, 2s. to 2s. 6d. A pair of moderate-sized soles are enough for four or five persons.
A plain white-wine-free poached sole in a lemon-scented cream sauce. The only real problem is the clock: the original cooks the fish twice, for a total of 25 minutes, which is roughly five times what sole needs.
- The timing is the hingeSole fillets or small whole soles are done in 4-6 minutes in barely simmering liquid; the flesh should just part from the bone. Poach the fish once, lift it out, build the sauce with the strained liquor, then return the fish only long enough to warm through — a minute or two off the heat.
- Imperial measuresHalf a pint here is the British half-pint, 10 fl oz, or about 1¼ US cups. A "pair of soles" of moderate size means two whole fish, which the book says feeds four to five.
- Thickening of flour and butterThis is beurre manié: equal weights of soft butter and flour kneaded to a paste, whisked into the hot milk in small pieces. About ½ oz of each per 10 fl oz of liquid gives a coating sauce. A cooked roux works as well but wants a couple of minutes' cooking to lose the raw flour taste.
- Go lighter on the spiceFifteen peppercorns and fifteen allspice berries in a pan of court-bouillon will dominate delicate fish. Half that quantity of each is plenty, and the allspice can be dropped entirely if you want the lemon and cream to read clearly.
- Lemon rind"Thin rind" means pared with a knife or peeler, no white pith. Steep it in the warming milk and fish it out before the sauce goes to table, or the sauce turns bitter as it sits.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of bread, toasted or fried in butter, set round the edge of the dish. Add them at the last second; they go sodden fast under a cream sauce.
- SkinningSole is normally skinned on the dark side only, the white skin left on to hold the fish together during poaching. A fishmonger will do it in seconds if asked.
- Probable costThe 2s to 2s 6d is Victorian money and tells you only that sole was a middling-expensive fish, generally dearer than herring and cheaper than turbot or salmon.
This entry sits in a run of variations — fried, boiled, stewed, stewed another way — which is how Cassell's was organised: a dictionary rather than a menu, giving the cook several ways through the same ingredient. Sole was a favourite of Victorian English cookery writers because it is firm, mild and holds its shape, and the expansion of the railways, which brought fish inland and into London markets far faster than before, helped make it a dependable dinner-party fish. The onion stuck with cloves and the handful of peppercorns and allspice is a typical nineteenth-century English poaching liquor, a plainer relative of the French court-bouillon, and finishing with milk or cream thickened with flour and butter rather than an egg liaison suggests everyday household cooking rather than restaurant style.