No. 1272

Soles a la Lutece

Cut off straight the heads from three well cleaned soles; remove the black skin; shorten them greatly with a pair of scissors, split them through the middle of the skinned side, and season with salt and pepper; dip in flour, then in beaten egg, and lastly in bread-crumbs; fry in clarified butter, dress on a very hot oval-shaped dish, and garnish around with five-eights of an inch in diameter potato balls, fried and afterward rolled in fresh butter; season with salt, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. Serve a Parisian sauce (No. 515), at the same time, but separately.

← No. 1271 Fried Soles a la Colbert Sole, Flounder & Turbot No. 1273 Soles a la Marguery—Fillets →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward crumbed and pan-fried sole from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, distinguished mainly by its garnish of buttered potato balls and a separately served sauce. The details that need translation are the fish preparation and the cross-reference to sauce No. 515.

The hinge: splitting the fish"Split them through the middle of the skinned side" means cutting down the backbone on the side from which the black skin has been removed, so the fillets loosen from the bone as the fish fries. Do this before breading, cut just to the bone and no deeper, and the fish will lift off the frame cleanly at the table.
"Shorten them greatly"This most likely means trimming rather than cutting the fish short: snipping off the fringe of fin bones all round and shortening the tail with scissors, which would also keep the crumb coating from burning on the thin edges.
Skin and headsOnly the black upper skin comes off; the white underskin stays on to hold the fish together. Sole of around 12-14 oz each would suit three portions, though the recipe specifies no weight; true Dover sole is expensive, and petrale sole, lemon sole, flounder or dab can stand in, though the more delicate ones handle less well in the pan.
Clarified butterWhole butter will brown and speck the crumbs before the fish is cooked. Clarified butter takes about 350F comfortably; a mix of clarified butter and a neutral oil works if you are shallow-frying. Three to four minutes a side for a whole sole of this size.
Potato ballsFive-eighths of an inch is about 16 mm, the size of a large parisienne scoop. Scoop from peeled raw potatoes, fry until golden and tender, then roll in fresh butter with salt, lemon juice and parsley off the heat, not in the pan.
Parisian sauce (No. 515)In Ranhofer this appears to be a veloute-family sauce of the allemande type, finished with egg yolks and cream; worth checking No. 515 rather than taking the identification on trust. Any well-made allemande or sauce supreme serves the same purpose; it is passed separately so the crust stays crisp.
ServingThe hot oval platter is not decoration. Breaded fried fish cools fast and goes limp on a cold plate. Three soles serve three as a main course, six as a fish course.

A Little History

Lut"iaia" aside, Lut"e"ce is the French form of Lutetia, the Roman settlement traditionally associated with the Île de la Cité — though the Roman town is now generally placed on the Left Bank, with a separate Parisii site at Nanterre — that became Paris. Charles Ranhofer, who cooked at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years and published The Epicurean in 1894, built the book as a working reference of exactly this kind: hundreds of numbered preparations that cross-refer to a numbered sauce list, so a kitchen brigade could assemble a named dish from parts it already had on hand. Sole was the flatfish of the classical repertoire and appears here in dozens of guises.