Modern cookery, in all its branches; reduced to a system of easy practice / [Eliza Acton].

  • Acton, Eliza, 1799-1859
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern cookery, in all its branches; reduced to a system of easy practice / [Eliza Acton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Very small soles will be done in six minutes, and large ones in about ten. They may be floured and fried, without being egged and crumbed, but this is not a very usual mode of serv- ing them. Small soles, 6 minutes; large, about 10 minutes. TO BOIL SOLES. The flesh of a fine fresh sole, when boiled with care, is remarkably sweet and delicate: if very large it may be dressed and served as turbot, to which it will be found little inferior. Clean and wash it thoroughly, but do not skin it; cover it plentifully with cold water, throw in a handful of salt and a morsel of saltpetre, about half the size of a hazel nut. When the water boils skim it well, and let the fish simmer very softly from five to ten minutes. Soles of moderate size should be laid into warm water, and will be sufficiently done vfith five minutes’ simmering: these should be freed from the dark skin before they are dressed, and dished with the white skin upwards. Send shrimp, lobster, or anchovy sauce and dressed cucumber to table with them. Very large sole, 5 to 10 minutes; moderate sized, 4 to 6 minutes. FILLETS OF SOLES. The word fillet^ whether applied to fish, poultry, game, or butcher’s meat, means simply the flesh of either (or of certain portions of it), raised clear from the bones in a handsome form, and divided or not, as the manner in which it is to be served may require. It is an elegant mode of dressing various kinds of fish, and even those which are not the most highly esteemed, aflbrd an excellent dish when thus prepared. Soles to be filleted with advantage should be large ; the flesh may then be divided down the middle of the back, next, separated from the fins, and with a very sharp knife raised clean from the bones.* When thus prepared, the fillets may be divided, trimmed into a good form, egged, covered with fine crumbs, fried in the usual way, and served Avith the same sauces as the whole fish ; or each fillet may be rolled up, in its entire length if very small, or after being once divided if large, and fastened with a slight twine, or a short thin skewer; then egged, crmnbed, and fried in * A celebrated French cook gives the following instructions for raising these fillets :—“ Take them up by running your knife first between tlie bones and the flesh, then between the skin and the fillet ; by leaning pretty hard on the table they will come off very neatly.”