Fried Sole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat the fat in a deep frying pan until hot.
Clean the sole, cut off the fins and tail, and wipe it with a cloth.
Coat the sole with egg and cover it with bread crumbs, shaking off the excess.
Fry and serve
Place the sole in the hot fat, belly side down.
Test the fat by throwing in a pinch of crumbs; if it hisses, it's ready.
Fry the sole for about 10 minutes, turning it once.
Remove the sole and place it on a cloth to absorb excess fat.
Serve on a napkin, ensuring it shows no grease.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sole
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through as it fries.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
- Fat
- Conducts heat to cook the fish and crisp the coating.
The step that matters
Testing the fat temperature. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. A pinch of crumbs that sizzles vigorously shows the fat is ready before the fish goes in.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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