Cassell's dictionary of cookery

round it, and bake in a moderately-heated oven. When done enough, take it up, strain the gravy, and flavour it with a spoonful of the liquor in which gherkins have been pickled, and a spoonful of caper vinegar. Make it hot, pour it round the fish, and serve. Sometimes the inside of the sole thus prepared is larded in alternate rows with gherkins and truffles cut into thin strips. Time to bake the sole, about half an hour. Probable cost, 2s. Sufiicient for three or four persons. Sole in Cream (a deficate and delicious dish). — Take a pair of moderate-sized soles, scale and skin them, and clean them with scrupulous care. Put them into a saucepan of boiling water, and let them simmer gently for two minutes. Take them up, drain them, and put them into a clean saucepan. Pour over them as much sweet cream as will barely cover them, add a little salt and cayenne, a pinch of pounded mace, and an inch or two of lemonrind, and let them simmer gently until done enough. Take them up with a slice, and place them upon a hot dish. Thicken the cream with a little arrowroot, stir a table-spoonful of strained lemon- juice into it, and pour it over the fish. It may seem unnecessary that the soles should be boiled for a minute or two in water before they are put into the cream, but it will be found that if this is not done the sauce will have a slightly unpleasant fishy flavour. Time to simmer the fish, eight to ten minutes. Sufficient for four- or five persons. Probable cost, soles. Is. 6d. to 2s. per pair. Sole, Normande.— Choose a thick sole, scale and clean it, and draw off the dark skin, by cutting it through at the tail end and drawing it over the head. Butter thickly a dish that ■will stand the fire, and strew over it some very thin slices of onions. A silver dish is the most suitable for the purpose, as the fish should be served in the dish in which it was baked. Season the sole with salt and pepper, and lay it on the onion; sprinkle a little chopped parsley on the surface, and moisten the fish well with French white wine. Put it in a gentle oven, and bake it until done enough. Take a dozen fine bright-yellow mussels, cleanse and scrape them, boil them in the usual way, beard and drain them, and lay them on the sole. Make a quarter of a pint of rich white sauce, mix with this the gravy from the sole and a little of that in which the mussels were cooked. Reduce the sauce till it coats the spoon; pour a little of it upon the sole over the mussels, and put the dish again in the oven for a few minutes to make it quite hot, but be careful not to colour the sauce at all. Serve very hot, and send the sauce which remains to table in a tureen. For a superlative dish, oysters and mushrooms may be laid upon the sole, as well as mussels, and the liquor from the oysters may be added to the sauce. Also fried smelts, crayfish, and fried croutons of bread may be used to garnish the dish. When preparing the fish for baking, it should be remembered that cider and perry replace French wine so well that it is almost needless to employ the latter, excepting when money is very plentiful. Grand cooks would use champagne, sauterne or other SOL ( 896 ) SOL