We will suppose that a certain dish consists of
something fried. Perhaps one or two are expected to
dinner who are known or supposed to be rather par-
ticular. The mistress has consulted the cookery-book,
which gravely recommends as follows : — ” Fry of a nice
golden-colour, and serve hot.” How to do it, however,
we are not informed. Suppose the dish to be a fried sole
or a sweetbread. We all know the real thing, a sweet-
bread at the Cafe , soft and white inside, and
a perfect golden-brown out, without even a shade of
colour varying in the whole dish. On the other hand,
a sweetbread d la Mary Ann, covered with bread-
crumbs, some a whitey-brown, some brown, and some
black, but still containing patches with no bread-crumbs
at all, looking like a cat’s back where the cook had
accidentally spilt some boiling water.
Or, perhaps, a still greater blunder has been made.
On this particular occasion Mary Ann, who means
well, endeavours to do her utmost to make things look
nice, and in trying to obtain this nice golden-colour,
fries the sole till it is so dried up that it becomes scarcely
eatable. Who has not occasionally in small families
noticed the slight passing shadow of annoyance on the
face of the hostess, as she becomes aware of some such
little contretemps ? — in which, perhaps, a very close
observer of human nature might detect the thought :
” It will never warm up for breakfast.”
Now, is it possible to write clear directions, so that
anyone with an average amount of common sense can,
by following them, fry fish, sweetbreads, etc., which
will combine colour with quality ? We believe it is
possible ; at any rate, it is worth the attempt.
All fish that has to be fried with egg and bread-
crumbs must be treated alike in this respect. The
12
PRACTICAL HOME COOKERY.
fish must first be thoroughly dried. Next, it must be
floured. This is done in order to ensure its being dry,
just as a baby’s neck is powdered for a similar purpose
after being dried with a towel. Next, the egg must be
thoroughly beaten up before it is used ; otherwise, the
white of the egg especially is apt to slip off, leaving
those bald patches we have mentioned. Again, the
bread-crumbs must be dry and fine. It is no use to
attempt to use bread-crumbs made from new bread,
which will be necessarily coarse.
Now, we will suppose these conditions complied
with — say a sole has been carefully dried and floured,
has been carefully egged over, and then covered with
some very fine bread-crumbs. Most cooks will say :
“ Well, then fry it in plenty of hot fat, allow it to drain
on a napkin, and that’s all.”
Wait a minute. If you have a frying-pan two feet
in diameter, filled with boiling fat three inches deep,
this would do very well. A few minutes would suffice
to cook the sole a nice colour, “all over ahke.” But
have you this ? Probably, to start with, the fish is a
trifle longer than the frying-pan. The fat is a quarter
of an inch deep, and won’t cover the fish. How, under
these very common circumstances, will you get your
fish to look nice ? ✪ Fried Sole
Page 3 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1906. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
We will suppose that a certain dish consists of something fried. Perhaps one or two are expected to dinner who are known or supposed to be rather particular. The mistress has consulted the cookery-book, which gravely recommends as follows : — ” Fry of a nice golden-colour, and serve hot.” How to do it, however, we are not informed. Suppose the dish to be a fried sole or a sweetbread. We all know the real thing, a sweetbread at the Cafe , soft and white inside, and
a perfect golden-brown out, without even a shade of colour varying in the whole dish. On the other hand, a sweetbread à la Mary Ann, covered with breadcrumbs, some a whitey-brown, some brown, and some black, but still containing patches with no bread-crumbs at all, looking like a cat’s back where the cook had accidentally spilt some boiling water.
Or, perhaps, a still greater blunder has been made. On this particular occasion Mary Ann, who means well, endeavours to do her utmost to make things look nice, and in trying to obtain this nice golden-colour, fries the sole till it is so dried up that it becomes scarcely eatable. Who has not occasionally in small families noticed the slight passing shadow of annoyance on the face of the hostess, as she becomes aware of some such little contretemps ? — in which, perhaps, a very close observer of human nature might detect the thought : ” It will never warm up for breakfast.”
Now, is it possible to write clear directions, so that anyone with an average amount of common sense can, by following them, fry fish, sweetbreads, etc., which will combine colour with quality ? We believe it is possible ; at any rate, it is worth the attempt.
All fish that has to be fried with egg and breadcrumbs must be treated alike in this respect. The
fish must first be thoroughly dried. Next, it must be floured. This is done in order to ensure its being dry, just as a baby’s neck is powdered for a similar purpose after being dried with a towel. Next, the egg must be thoroughly beaten up before it is used ; otherwise, the white of the egg especially is apt to slip off, leaving those bald patches we have mentioned. Again, the bread-crumbs must be dry and fine. It is no use to attempt to use bread-crumbs made from new bread, which will be necessarily coarse.
Now, we will suppose these conditions complied with — say a sole has been carefully dried and floured, has been carefully egged over, and then covered with some very fine bread-crumbs. Most cooks will say : “ Well, then fry it in plenty of hot fat, allow it to drain on a napkin, and that’s all.”
Wait a minute. If you have a frying-pan two feet in diameter, filled with boiling fat three inches deep, this would do very well. A few minutes would suffice to cook the sole a nice colour, “all over ahke.” But have you this ? Probably, to start with, the fish is a trifle longer than the frying-pan. The fat is a quarter of an inch deep, and won’t cover the fish. How, under these very common circumstances, will you get your fish to look nice ?
Records on this page
Fried Sole