Fried Sole

Ingredients

• a sole
• floured
• the egg must be thoroughly beaten up
• the bread-crumbs must be dry and fine
• enough fat to cover the fish

Method

1. 1

   First, thoroughly dry the fish.

2. 2

   Next, flour it to ensure it is dry.

3. 3

   Beat the egg and coat the fish with it.

4. 4

   Then, cover the fish with fine bread-crumbs.

5. 5

   Fry in plenty of hot fat until cooked through and golden-brown.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Common-sense papers on cookery (1880) by A. G. Payne, page 2. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

fried sole or a sweetbread. We all know the real thing — a sweetbread at the Cafe Bignon — 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 a 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 annoy- ance 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 any one with an average amount of common sense can, by following them, fry fish, sweetbreads, &c., which will combine colour with quality? We believe it is possible ; at any rate, it is worth the attempt. Uses and Abuses of a Frying-pan. 13 All fish that has to be fried with egg and bread- crumbs 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 alike.” 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 ? 14 Common-sense Cookery. Go to the baker’s at once, and order in as follows (it does not cost anything) — a bag of light-brown bread-raspings, of about the colour you would use for a ham. Always have some by you — they keep almost for ever, and, as I have said, the baker gives them away. Take some of these, and make them fine — a rolling-pin and a little patience are sufficient for the purpose. Take these fine raspings and sprinkle the sole — we left it egged and bread-crumbed well on both sides — lo, and behold ! the sole, even before it is put in the frying-pan, is all that is desirable in the way of colour. The weight is off your mind; all you now have to do is to cook it so that it is done through without being dried up. Now for this purpose you must have a certain depth of lard or dripping, or it cannot be done. Properly speaking, there ought to be enough fat to cover the fish

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.