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Fillets of Sole with Anchovies
Fry the fillets of a sole in a little salad oil, season them with salt and pepper, and press them between two dishes until cold. Bone and clean four anchovies, and divide each one into four fillets. Cut the fillets of sole into pieces about the same size as the anchovy fillets, mix them together and pile them on a dish. Mix with a teacupful of salad oil, one tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, and one chopped capsicum. Pour the dressing over the fish, and serve it.
A cold hors d'oeuvre disguised as a fish course: everything is cooked first, chilled, then dressed. The hinge is the pressing, which firms the fillets enough to be cut into neat strips without shredding.
- Press it properlyFry the fillets briefly, lay them on a dish, set a second dish on top and weight it lightly, then refrigerate until fully cold. Skipping this leaves the sole too soft to cut into anchovy-sized batons and the finished pile collapses into hash.
- Salad oilIn 1890s kitchen language this usually meant olive oil, the ordinary grade used for dressings rather than the peppery finishing oils sold now, though cottonseed oil was also sold as "salad oil" by this date. A mild extra-virgin or a good pure olive oil is closer to the intent than anything nut- or seed-based.
- A teacupfulRoughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup, since period teacups vary and this is one of the looser measures here. Against a single tablespoon of vinegar that is a very rich dressing by modern taste; three or four parts oil to one of vinegar is nearer what most cooks now want.
- AnchoviesThe instruction to bone and clean them suggests whole salt-cured anchovies, and each is cut down into four small pieces. Eight oil-packed fillets from a tin, each halved, give about the same quantity; rinse and pat them dry, and cut back on the added salt.
- CapsicumIn American cookbooks of this date capsicum usually means a red pepper pod, fresh or pickled, with some heat rather than a sweet bell pepper. One chopped fresh red chile, seeded, or a pickled cherry pepper both read correctly here.
- SoleThe sole called for may well have been imported Dover sole, though the book does not say. Domestic fish sold as sole is generally flounder, which is thinner and more fragile; petrale, lemon sole or a small halibut fillet all press and cut better.
- Tarragon vinegarStill sold, and worth seeking out rather than substituting plain white wine vinegar, since the anise note is what ties the oily fish to the pepper. A sprig of tarragon steeped in white wine vinegar for a few days does the same job.
- Yield and serviceFour anchovies and one sole make a first course for two or three, or a small plate among several on an hors d'oeuvre table. Dress it just before serving; the vinegar begins to bleach and soften the fish if it sits.
Oscar Tschirky was not a chef but the Waldorf's maitre d'hotel, and his 1896 book records the repertoire of a hotel kitchen working in an unapologetically French idiom for New York diners. Dishes like this belong to the hors-d'oeuvre varies tradition, the tray of small cold plates that opened a long meal, where the point was contrast in texture and saltiness rather than any elaborate cookery. The cured fish supplies the salt and savor that a plainly fried sole lacks on its own. Capsicum appears in books of this period as a general term for red pepper pods.