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Filleted Sole (a l'Italienne)
Fillet a large fresh sole in the usual way, and divide each fillet into halves by cutting it across. Season the pieces with pepper and salt, and rub them over with cut lemon. Rub 2 ounces of butter into 8 ounces of biscuit flour. Add a pinch of salt, and make a stiff paste by mixing with the flour the yolk of an egg which has been beaten up with the eighth of a pint of cold water. Roll this paste out very thin, and cut it into pieces of a size and shape that will entirely cover the filleted fish. Wrap each piece of fish in the paste, press the edges closely, and fry the fillets in hot fat over a slow fire till they are brightly browned. Drain them from the fat, and serve on a dish in a circle, with one fillet overlapping the other. Pour cold tartare sauce into the centre, and serve. Time to fry the fillets, about half an hour. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A fried fish course in a thin pastry jacket, served in a ring around a bowl of tartare sauce. Two details in the original need adjusting before it will work in a modern pan.
- The frying time is wrong for usHalf an hour in the fat would leave the sole dry and the pastry dark. Thin fillets in a thin casing need about 4 to 6 minutes total, turning once, until the paste is an even golden brown.
- Fat temperatureA "slow fire" here seems to mean moderate rather than fierce frying heat, so the pastry colours at about the rate the fish cooks through; somewhere in the region of 340-350F is a reasonable modern reading, though the book gives no figure. Hotter than that and the casing browns before the centre is set.
- Biscuit flourMost likely a soft, low-protein flour of the sort used for biscuits and short pastes. Plain all-purpose flour works; if you have pastry or cake flour, use it, as the paste should stay tender rather than chewy.
- The eighth of a pintAn imperial eighth-pint is 2 1/2 fluid ounces, about 5 tablespoons. Add it gradually with the egg yolk: you want a stiff paste that rolls thin without cracking, and flours vary.
- Sealing is the hingeAny gap in the edge lets fat in and steam out, and the parcel will burst. Roll thin, allow a clear border all round the fish, press firmly, and trim the seam close so it does not unfurl in the pan.
- The soleOne large Dover sole yields four fillets, halved to make eight parcels. Lemon sole, flounder or any thin white flatfish fillet substitutes without changing the method; pat the fish dry after the lemon rub so the paste adheres.
- Tartare sauceIt goes in cold, poured into the centre of the ring; a small bowl or a hollow keeps it off the pastry, which would soften at once. A mayonnaise-based sauce with capers, gherkin and herbs is the usual period reading.
- YieldFour to five as a fish course, as stated. As a main dish it will stretch to three at most.