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Soles Stewed in Cream

A fish stew of soles simmered in cream with mace, cayenne, salt, lemon juice, and optional arrow-root thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Soles Stewed in Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Prepare fresh middling-sized soles.

  2. Put them into boiling water slightly salted, and simmer for two minutes only.

  3. Lift them out and let them drain.

Stew in cream

  1. Lay them into a wide stewpan with as much sweet rich cream as will nearly cover them.

  2. Add a good seasoning of pounded mace, cayenne, and salt.

  3. Stew the fish softly from six to ten minutes, or until the flesh parts readily from the bones.

Finish and serve

  1. Dish them, stir the juice of half a lemon into the sauce, pour it over the soles, and send them immediately to table.

  2. (Optional) Some lemon-rind may be boiled in the cream, if approved.

  3. (Optional) A small teaspoonful of arrow-root, very smoothly mixed with a little milk, may be stirred to the sauce before the lemon-juice is added, if thickening is required.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

6Calories
0 gProtein
0 gFat
1 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Soles (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky when gently stewed.
Cream (in the method)
Forms the rich sauce that moistens the fish and carries the seasonings.
Arrow-root
Thickens the cream sauce to a smooth, lightly set consistency when added.
Lemon juice (in the method)
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Stew the fish softly. Gentle heat keeps the delicate flesh tender and intact; a hard boil toughens the protein and breaks the fish apart, so the flesh should only just part from the bones.

“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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