Soles, Boiled
INGREDIENTS.lb. of salt to each gallon of water. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 3d. per lb.
Cleanse and wash the fish carefully, cut off the fins, but do not skin it. Lay it in a fish-kettle, with sufficient cold water to cover it, salted in the above proportion.
THE SOLE.
Let it gradually come to a boil, and keep it simmering for a few minutes, according to the size of the fish. Dish it on a hot napkin after well draining it, and garnish with parsley and cut lemon. Shrimp or lobster sauce, and plain melted butter are usually sent to table with this dish.
TIME. After the water boils, 7 minutes for a middling-sized sole.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Soles, Boiled or Fried, To Carve. The usual way of helping this fish is to cut it right through, bone and all, distributing it in nice and not too large pieces. A moderately-sized sole will be sufficient for three slices; namely, the B THE SOLE.
A ອຸ head, middle and tail. The guests should be asked which of these they prefer. A small one will only give two slices. If the sole is very large, the upper side may be raised from the bone, and then divided into pieces; and the under side served in the same way.
In helping filleted soles, one fillet is given to each person.
SOLES, FILLETED.
Soles, Filleted, à l'Italienne. -INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 or 5 persons. -2 soles; salt, pepper and grated nutmeg to taste; egg and bread-crumbs, butter, the juice of 1 lemon. AVERAGE Cost, 1s. 3d. per lb.
Skin and carefully wash the soles, separate the meat from the bone, and divide each fillet in two pieces. Brush them over with white of egg, sprinkle with bread-crumbs and seasoning, and put them in a baking-dish. Place small pieces of butter over the whole, and bake for 1/2 hour.
When they are nearly done, squeeze the juice of a lemon over them, and serve on a dish, with Italian sauce (see Sauces) poured over them.
TIME. hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. Whiting may be dressed in the same manner, and will be found very delicious.
A plainly poached flatfish, timed in minutes rather than by internal temperature. The whole point is restraint: sole is thin, and the difference between set and shredded is about ninety seconds.
- The salt proportion is incompleteThe ingredient line has lost its quantity, so no reliable conversion can be given. Other boiled-fish recipes of the period commonly specify about a quarter-pound of salt per gallon, on the order of 1.5 to 2 tablespoons per litre, but treat that as an inference rather than as this book's instruction.
- Start cold, finish barely simmeringBringing the water up gradually with the fish already in it sets the flesh evenly and keeps the skin from splitting. Once it reaches the boil, drop the heat so the surface only shivers; a rolling boil will break a sole apart.
- Seven minutes is generousThe stated time is counted from the moment the water boils, and applies to what the book calls a middling-sized sole. Modern practice would pull it at 4 to 6 minutes, when the flesh parts cleanly from the backbone at the thickest point.
- Fish kettleA long, narrow pan with a perforated lifting trivet, so the fish can be raised out intact. A roasting tin on the hob works, with two spatulas or a sling of doubled foil for lifting.
- Skin onThe instruction not to skin it is deliberate: the skin helps hold the fish together in the water. Skinning before boiling risks the flesh breaking up.
- The hot napkinA folded linen cloth laid on the serving dish to absorb the water that continues to drain from a boiled fish. A double thickness of kitchen paper under the fish does the same job and is removed before it reaches the table.
- Baked fillets, if you use the second entryHalf an hour is far too long for crumbed sole fillets. At 400F they will be done in 12 to 15 minutes, and the lemon juice goes on in the last two.
- YieldOne middling sole serves two, or three at a carved-and-shared table as the accompanying note describes. Allow one whole small sole per person for a main course.
Dover sole earned its reputation less for flavour than for structure: a firm, close-grained fish that survives being carried inland, cooked whole and cut through the bone at table without collapsing. Nineteenth-century London fishmongers sold it at a premium, and the price noted here of 1s 3d per pound would generally have placed it above cod or herring in the household budget, though the comparison is a rough one. Boiling, rather than the frying or grilling now more usual, was the standard treatment for a fish thought fine enough to stand on its own, with the interest supplied by the sauceboat: shrimp, lobster or plain melted butter, all of them thickened with flour in the English manner and quite unlike a French beurre fondu. The carving note that follows belongs to a period when the fish came whole to the table and the host was expected to know that head, middle and tail eat differently, and to ask.