Soles a la Mazagran-Fillets

This entree is to be dressed on a wooden foundation fastened to a dish having a pyramidical wooden support in its center, both to be covered with white paper. First prepare a small variegated macedoine salad (No. 2650); let it macerate for two hours in its seasoning, then drain it off, and dress the salad with thick mayonnaise (No. 606), and keep it on ice. Suppress the shells from the claws and tails of two lobsters simply cooked in a court-bouillon (No. 38), and left till cold; split the claws in two through their thickness, and brush over with half-set jelly, so as to be able to fasten them together again; also divide the tail meats into several slices from top to bottom, and wet each slice with half-set jelly, so as to be able to reshape them as before; keep these tails and claws on ice. Cook the fillets of three soles in a baking tin with white wine court-bouillon (No. 39), and as soon as done drain and range them on another baking tin and cover over with buttered paper; let cool off under a weight, then pare them all of the same length, not too freely, suppressing only the thin ends. Take the fillets up one by one, dip them into a white chaudfroid sauce (No. 596), reduced with a part of the stock they are cooked in, and range then once more on the same tin, keeping them a slight distance apart; cool them off on ice, and then cut away the surplus sauce. With the prepared salad, mingled with the fragments of lobster tail, cover the pyramidical support all around so as to increase its thickness, but keeping it in the same shape; smooth and cover over with a layer of jellied mayonnaise (No. 613). Against this pyramid dress the fillets of soles standing upright, one overlapping the other, and cover them with half-set jelly put on with a brush. On top of the pyramid dress the two prepared claws and tails, surround them with a thick string of chopped jelly to keep them in position and cover them as well with the half-set jelly. Place all around the bottom of the dish even-sized fine jelly croutons (No. 2442), and keep the dish for ten minutes on ice, then serve with a separate mayonnaise sauce (No. 606).