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Aspic of Fillets of Soles
Fillet the soles, butter a baking-dish, put in the fillets, squeeze a little lemon juice over and season with salt and pepper; cover the fillets with a sheet of buttered paper and bake them for ten minutes in the oven. When cooked press the soles between two plates till cold. Put a layer of plain aspic jelly into a mould and leave till set. Cut the fillets of soles into small equal-sized rounds, and arrange them tastefully with some fillets of anchovies on the set aspic jelly. Sprinkle a little chopped parsley over them and cover with another layer of aspic jelly. Proceed in this manner, putting alternate layers of sole and aspic until the mould is full, then pack it in pounded ice. Turn the aspic out of the mould onto a dish, stick some slices of hard-boiled eggs on it with ravigote butter, and serve.
A cold buffet piece from the era when a hotel garde-manger kept clarified aspic on hand at all times. The work is in the jelly and the chilling, not the cooking.
- The hinge: set each layer before adding the nextEach layer of aspic must be fully firm and cold before fish goes on it, and the next ladle of jelly must be cool and syrupy rather than warm, or it will melt the layer beneath and the fish will drift. Chill the mould between layers and work in thin additions.
- Plain aspic jellyOscar does not say what the jelly is made from; a clarified fish fumet or a plain veal-based aspic from the day's stock would both fit a hotel larder. Modern equivalent: strong fish stock, seasoned and lightly acidulated with lemon or dry white wine, set with about 1 tablespoon (roughly 1 packet, 7 g) powdered gelatin per 2 cups of liquid for a jelly firm enough to unmould.
- Oven for the filletsNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, somewhere around 350F, suits fillets of true sole a quarter-inch thick in the ten minutes specified; thicker flounder or petrale fillets want 8-12 minutes and should be pulled the moment they turn opaque, since they are chilled afterward and will not forgive overcooking.
- Buttered paperA cartouche of buttered parchment laid directly on the fish, not a lid. It keeps the surface from drying while allowing steam to escape.
- SoleThe book says only 'soles'; in 1896 New York that could mean imported Dover sole or, as often, local flounder sold under the name. Flounder, petrale, lemon sole or fluke fillets all work; skip anything as thick as halibut, which will not cut into neat rounds.
- Pressing between two platesWeight the cooked fillets lightly under a second plate as they cool. This compacts them so they cut cleanly into rounds and stops them curling in the jelly.
- Pounded iceAn ice-packed mould in a hotel larder equals four hours or overnight in the refrigerator. To unmould, dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled platter.
- Ravigote butterSoftened butter worked with blanched, squeezed and pureed green herbs — chervil, chives, tarragon, parsley, watercress — plus a little shallot. It is used here as edible glue for the egg slices and as a green accent, so it should be firm and pipeable, not melting.
- SaltAnchovy fillets and a gelatin-set stock both concentrate salinity as the dish chills. Season the fillets and the aspic lightly; taste the jelly cold, on a chilled spoon, before you use it.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. Roughly four soles' worth of fillets will fill a 1-quart mould, serving six to eight as a first course. Cut with a knife dipped in hot water and serve straight from the refrigerator.
Oscar Tschirky was not a cook by trade but the Waldorf's maitre d'hotel, and the book collects the hotel's professional repertoire as it stood around 1896 — which is to say, the Franco-international kitchen as practiced in New York. Elaborate cold work like this belonged to the garde-manger, the cold-larder station whose stock in trade was aspic, chaud-froid and mayonnaise collee; a molded, layered fish in clear jelly was a centerpiece for a summer buffet or a supper after the opera, meant to be looked at as much as eaten. The reliance on "plain aspic jelly" as an assumed pantry item is telling: gelatin came from long-simmered bones and had to be clarified with egg white, so a hotel made it in quantity. Sauce ravigote and its herb butter are older French preparations, the name generally traced to ravigoter, to revive or perk up, which is what a sharp green herb butter does for cold fish.