Fillet the soles, and dip the pieces in some oil, seasoned with pepper and salt. Roll up the pieces, and grill them over a clear fire. They will be done as soon as they cease to be transparent. Stew the bones and fins in a little water, in which has been placed a small slice of onion and a sprig of parsley. Stew this down to half a pint, strain it oft, thicken it with some white thickening (see No. 12), add a little more butter, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and two teaspoonfuls of lemon-juice. The rolled fillets of sole can be placed on end in a vegetable or silver dish; the sauce, made thick, can be poured over them. Then ornament as follows: - Cut little pieces of red chili and green gherkin, the size of a threepenny-piece; place a piece, alternately red and green, on each piece of sole. (See Maitre d'Hotel Sauce).

Sole Au Gratin

Chop up one or two good-sized mushrooms, or a small tin of mushrooms, with a small piece of onion the size of the top of the thumb, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a piece of lemon-peel the size of the thumb-nail; add pepper and salt. Fry these with two ounces of butter in a frying-pan for four or five minutes. Egg-and-bread-crumb a sole, place it in a baking-dish, and pour this mixture over it. Bake in the oven for ten minutes. Then turn the fish over, shake a few very dry bread crumbs over it, add a teaspoonful of sherry to the sauce, and a tablespoon-ful of good gravy. Shake a little grated cheese over the top. Bake till it is a light brown colour on the top. Serve the sole in the tin.

The best tin for Sole au gratin is a long oval one, not much bigger than the sole itself.

A cheap way of making Sole au gratin is to egg-and-bread-crumb the sole, and bake it in the oven with some butter, chopped onion, parsley, and lemon-peel; pepper and salt as above, baste the fish. Add a teaspoonful of wine and a very little grated cheese.

Fried Sole

Dry and flour the fish, egg-and bread-crumb it (see No. 20), and fry (see No. 6). The sole can be fried plain, without egg and bread crumbs. When very small, this is best. Serve butter sauce or anchovy sauce with fried sole. Orna-ment with parsley and cut lemon. (See No. 29.) Sole is best grilled plain. (See No. 5).

How To Fillet Sole

Soles are best filleted at home, for the sake of the bones and fins, which make such excellent sauce. To fillet a sole: cut a deep cut from head to tail down the side of the backbone, touching the backbone. Keep cutting with a knife the flesh away from the ribs, keeping the edge of the knife touching the ribs. When you cut the flap of flesh so far down that you meet the points of the little fin-bones, cut the flap off. One sole will make four fillets. The knife had better not be too sharp, or it will cut into the bones. It is best to cut off the head and tail first. The head and tail, bones and fins, will all stew down to make excellent sauce.