Filleted Soles Fines Herbes (1911)
Reader ratingsFilleted soles fines herbes from the 1911 paper-bag cookery craze: fillets baked in a sealed bag with parsley, mushrooms, shallot, butter and a splash of sherry.
- Recipe makes
- 4 fillets, serves 2
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The fish bakes for 12 to 15 minutes in its parchment bag. Have the plates hot before you open it: the book sends the fish to table at once.
Filleted soles with fine herbs, served in their opened parchment packet.
The story behind the recipe
Four fillets of sole, seasoned, scattered with parsley, mushrooms and shallot, dotted with butter and sealed in a greased paper bag with a splash of sherry: this was the first course of the bachelor’s supper in Soyer’s Paper-Bag Cookery (1911). It bakes in about a quarter of an hour, and when the bag is cut open the fish comes out in its own sauce.
The barrister’s fish course
The supper belongs to a story in the book, “The Bag and the Bachelor.” A young barrister has to give supper to a senior lawyer who will eat only white foods, with his housekeeper away and no idea how to cook. The writer hands him a bag for each dish and a menu that opens with “Filleted Soles, fines herbes.” This is the recipe the book prints for that line, so the dish and the method come from the same chapter; whether anyone outside the story ever cooked the supper is not recorded.
Fish had a fixed place in the oven, too. Soyer’s general directions put roasts on the lower shelf, fish on the middle and pastry at the top, so a whole supper could share one oven. The book’s own instruction for serving is brisk: cut the bag open “with a pair of clean scissors” and send the fish to table at once. The whole story of the craze is in Why Did London Cook Dinner in Paper Bags in 1911?
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
The biggest change is the bag. A brown grocery bag is not safe to cook in, so we fold a large sheet of parchment into a sealed packet, which does the same job. We set it on a wire rack over a baking sheet, as close as a modern kitchen gets to the book’s rule of a broiler under the bag and never a dish. The book bakes the fish “in a moderately hot oven”; we use 375°F (190°C).
The book allows four or six fillets; four make a supper for two. After the fish, the barrister’s menu moves on to the Roast Fowl with Savory Crumbs (1911), cooked in its own bag.
Take four or six fillets of sole, dust lightly with salt and white pepper, and sprinkle also lightly with finely minced parsley, chopped mushrooms, and a very little minced shallot. ...
Recipe makes: 4 fillets, serves 2
Ingredients
For 4 fillets, serves 2. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 4 fillets, serves 2.
Fish
- Sole fillets (4 fillets)1 lb
- Salt1/4 tsp
- Ground white pepper1/8 tsp
- Finely chopped parsley1 tbsp
- White mushrooms, finely chopped1 oz
- Finely chopped shallot1 tsp
- Lemon juice1/4 tsp
- Butter, quartered1 oz
- Dry sherry2 tbsp
For the bag
- Butter, softened1 tsp
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 lb sole fillets (4 fillets)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1 oz white mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 tsp finely chopped shallot
- ¼ tsp lemon juice
- 1 oz butter, quartered
- 2 tbsp dry sherry
- 1 tsp butter, softened
Equipment
- Parchment paper, about 15 by 24 inches
- Rimmed baking sheet
- Wire rack that fits on the baking sheet
- Scissors
Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C), with a shelf in the middle. Set the wire rack on the baking sheet.
Fold the parchment in half across its length to make a double square, then open it out flat. Spread the butter for the bag over the right half, leaving a 2-inch border.
Pat the sole fillets dry. Season both sides lightly with the salt and white pepper, then lay them side by side on the buttered half of the parchment, overlapping a little if they must.
Sprinkle the fillets lightly with the parsley, mushrooms and shallot, add a few drops of lemon juice, and put a piece of the butter on each fillet.
Fold the plain half of the parchment over the fish. Starting at one corner, fold and crease the open edges over in short, overlapping pleats to seal them, leaving a gap of about 2 inches at the last corner.
Pour the sherry into the packet through the gap, then fold the last corner over twice to close it.
Lift the packet onto the rack and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the parchment is puffed and the fish feels firm when you press it through the paper.
Slide the packet onto a hot platter. Cut it open with scissors, away from your face because of the steam, and check that the thickest fillet is opaque and flakes easily, or reads 145°F (63°C). Slide the fish and its juices onto warm plates and serve at once.
Nutrition
300calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 4 fillets, serves 2
- Servings
- 2
Estimated per serving (2 fillets) from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Four fillets fill one parchment bag. For more, make a second bag; don’t crowd the fish.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Flounder or other thin white fillets cook in the same time. Contains fish, milk and alcohol. The sherry ends up in the sauce, so for an alcohol-free version use the same amount of fish stock.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Nicolas Soyer, Soyer’s Paper-Bag Cookery (New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911), Filleted Soles Fines Herbes
Recipe details
- Course
- Fish course
- Dish family
- Fish & Seafood
- Region
- British
- Era
- Edwardian
- Source decade
- 1910s
- Main ingredient
- FishWine & spirits
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dinner party