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Mayonnaise of Soles
Place the soles to cook in boiling salted-water with a little lemon-juice added. When tender, drain the soles, lift the fillets carefully off the bones and place them between two dishes and press them together till cold. Then cut the fillets into as many cutlets as possible. Wash and bone some anchovies and cut them into small strips. Wash and remove the outer leaves of a large lettuce, cut the heart and remaining leaves into fine shreds, pile them on a dish and pour a quantity of nice mayonnaise sauce over them; over this, arrange a circle of the fillets of soles, next a circle of the anchovies and then a circle of stoned olives. Fill up the space in the center with finely-minced hard-boiled eggs, capers and anchovies, and serve.
This is a composed cold salad, not a sauce recipe — in nineteenth-century menu French a "mayonnaise of" something meant a dish of cold cooked fish or poultry built over dressed greens. The hinge is not overcooking the sole.
- Poaching timeSole fillets are done in roughly 3 to 5 minutes in barely simmering water; whole small soles need 6 to 8. "When tender" in the original assumes a cook watching the pan, not a set duration, and fish left to boil will shred when you try to lift the fillets.
- Court bouillonSalted water with lemon juice is the minimum. A few peppercorns, a bay leaf and a slice of onion cost nothing and improve the fish, which will be eaten cold and unsauced apart from the mayonnaise beneath it.
- PressingBetween two plates with a light weight, in the refrigerator, for an hour or two. This firms the flesh so it can be cut cleanly; skipping it gives you flakes rather than neat pieces.
- "Cutlets"Here it appears to mean neat shaped pieces cut from the pressed fillet, not anything chopped. Cut as many even pieces as each fillet allows and reserve the ragged ends for the centre mince.
- AnchoviesThe original assumes whole salt-packed anchovies needing washing and boning. Modern oil-packed fillets are already boned; drain and blot them, and taste before using, as saltiness varies. The washing step can be skipped.
- The mayonnaiseMade in this kitchen with raw yolks and oil. If the salad is for anyone elderly, pregnant or immune-compromised, use pasteurised eggs or a good commercial mayonnaise thinned with lemon juice. Keep the finished dish refrigerated and serve within a couple of hours.
- Olives"stoned olives" means pitted. Pit them yourself if you want them firm; jarred pitted olives are softer.
- Assembly and yieldBuild on a flat platter, not a bowl, so the concentric rings read. The original specifies no quantities; on the assumption of two soles' worth of fillets, a large lettuce and a dozen olives, this would serve about four as a lunch course.
Oscar Tschirky ran the dining rooms of the Waldorf from its opening in 1893 and put his name to The Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf in 1896 — a vast compendium aimed as much at aspiring households as at professionals. A "mayonnaise" of fish or fowl was a standard genre of the period's French service: cold cooked protein arranged over shredded lettuce bound with mayonnaise, then decorated in rings with anchovy, olive, caper and sieved egg. The same grammar produced mayonnaise of salmon, of chicken, of lobster, and it survives in diminished form in the modern composed salad. The recipe works with whichever sole or flatfish is to hand.