The Forgotten Menu
All recipesRecipes
Two upright rolls of white sole fillet with pale forcemeat showing at the top, in a pool of butter sauce on an oval white plate, beside a folded half of glossy braised lettuce, with a fish knife on a dark wooden table.
Paupiettes of sole with braised lettuce.

Paupiettes of Sole Choisy (1907)

Jump to recipe

Paupiettes of sole Choisy after Escoffier (1907): fillets spread with fish mousseline, rolled, stood upright and poached in fish stock, with braised lettuce for the Choisy garnish.

By Published

Recipe makes
4 servings, 8 paupiettes
Prep
Cook
Total

The lettuce braises for about 40 minutes, long enough to make the forcemeat, roll the fillets and poach them for 15 to 20 minutes. Keep the fish and cream cold until the forcemeat is mixed.

Jump to recipe
Other ways to share this recipeShare this recipe

Read the story

Paupiettes of sole with braised lettuce.

The story behind the recipe

Rolled fillets of sole with a lettuce garnish came second on the sultan’s menu of 1 July 1945, written there as Paupiettes de Soles Choisy and nothing more. No single recipe of that name stands in Escoffier’s London Guide of 1907, so this one joins three of his.

A scroll of sole

Escoffier explains paupiettes as fillets “rolled after the manner of a scroll.” The fillets are flattened with the blade of a large knife, spread on their skinned side with a thin layer of fish forcemeat, rolled, stood upright in a buttered pan “snugly together lest they lose their shape,” and poached in fish stock in a moderate oven, never letting the liquid boil.

He asks only for fish forcemeat. We use his mousseline, which he rates above every other: “whereas it can replace all other kinds, none of these can replace it.” He makes it from a pound of meat, two egg whites and a pint of thick cream, worked over ice, and allows fish in place of chicken.

The word Choisy is the garnish, and in Escoffier’s books it usually goes with lettuce, which is the reading we follow; his one sole dish of that name, in the French edition of 1903, uses mushrooms and truffles instead. His Omelet à la Choisy is filled with two tablespoons of braised lettuce bound with cream sauce. His braised lettuces are blanched, pressed, tied in twos or threes and braised slowly on carrots, onions and bacon in white stock.

Read more about this recipe

Making it today

A food processor replaces the mortar and the sieve, and we make a small batch of mousseline with one egg white, less salt than Escoffier’s ounce to the pound, and half a cup of cream. Bought fish stock with a little white wine stands in for his fumet, made from sole bones, onion, parsley, wine and lemon. We finish the poaching liquid with butter for a simple sauce, our choice, since Escoffier allows “all the garnishes and sauces suited to fillets of sole.” Because the rolls are stuffed with raw fish, we cook them until the center reaches 165°F (74°C).

How the Sultan of Morocco came to be traveling from the Cantal to Paris that night is told in What Was on the Royal Train’s Menu in 1945?. The vegetable that followed, after the poularde, is Escoffier’s French Beans (1907).

The paupiettes (or fillets rolled after the manner of a scroll) are served either as entrées like fillets of sole, ...

A. EscoffierA Guide to Modern Cookery (London: William Heinemann, 1907), no. 914, The Preparation of Paupiettes of Fillets of Sole, pp. 306 to 307

Read the full story

Ingredients

For 4 servings, 8 paupiettes. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 4 servings, 8 paupiettes.

  • Butter lettuce2 heads
  • Bacon1 slice
  • Small carrot, sliced1
  • Small onion, sliced1
  • Chicken stock1 cup
  • White fish fillet (sole, flounder or cod), cold, for the forcemeat4 oz
  • Salt1/2 tsp
  • White pepper1 pinch
  • Nutmeg1 pinch
  • Large egg white, cold1
  • Heavy cream, cold1/2 cup
  • Small sole or flounder fillets , skinned8Author measures: about 1 lb.
  • Softened butter, for the dish1 tbsp
  • Fish stock2 cups
  • Dry white wine1/4 cup
  • Cold butter, for the sauce2 tbsp
Ingredients as written here
  • 2 heads butter lettuce
  • 1 slice bacon
  • 1 small carrot, sliced
  • 1 small onion, sliced
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 4 oz white fish fillet (sole, flounder or cod), cold, for the forcemeat
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 pinch white pepper
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • 1 large egg white, cold
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, cold
  • 8 small sole or flounder fillets (about 1 lb), skinned
  • 1 tbsp softened butter, for the dish
  • 2 cups fish stock
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 2 tbsp cold butter, for the sauce
Equipment
  • Food processor
  • Small ovenproof dish or sauté pan with a lid, just large enough to hold 8 rolls upright
  • Ovenproof saucepan with a lid, for the lettuce
  • Instant-read thermometer
  • Kitchen string
  • Parchment paper
  • Fine sieve

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).

  2. For the lettuce, pull off any damaged outer leaves from the lettuce and blanch the heads whole in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Cool them in cold water, squeeze out the water gently, halve them, and tie each half closed with string.

  3. Lay the bacon, carrot and onion in the ovenproof saucepan, set the lettuce on top, pour in the chicken stock, cover, and braise in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the lettuce is very tender.

  4. Meanwhile, make the forcemeat. Cut the fish for the forcemeat into pieces and pulse it in the food processor with the salt, white pepper and nutmeg to a smooth paste. Add the egg white and process until glossy, then, with the machine running, pour in the cream in a thin stream. Stop as soon as it is smooth and chill it while you prepare the fillets.

  5. Lay the sole fillets skinned side up between sheets of parchment and flatten them lightly with the side of a large knife. Spread each thinly with forcemeat and roll it up from the wide end. Smooth the forcemeat that shows at the top.

  6. Butter the small dish with the softened butter and stand the rolls upright in it, close together.

  7. Warm the fish stock and wine until steaming and pour them around the rolls until they are nearly covered. Cover the dish and poach in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, without letting the liquid bubble, until the center of a roll reads 165°F (74°C).

  8. Lift the rolls onto a warm dish. Strain the poaching liquid through the sieve into a small pan and boil it until reduced by about two-thirds, then take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter.

  9. Lift out the lettuce, remove the strings, and fold each half neatly. Set the lettuce around the paupiettes, spoon a little braising liquid over the lettuce and the butter sauce over the fish, and serve at once.

Nutrition

350calories per serving

Recipe makes
4 servings, 8 paupiettes
Servings
4

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for sole, white fish, cream, egg white, butter, lettuce and bacon.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Keep the rolls snug in the dish at any batch size; a dish too large lets them unroll.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Ask for thin fillets of sole or flounder of similar size so the rolls cook evenly. Any leftover forcemeat can be poached in spoonfuls in the stock as small quenelles.

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 A. Escoffier, A Guide to Modern Cookery (London, 1907), nos. 914, 195, 2160 and 497

How we research

Recipe details

Course
Fish course
Dish family
Fish & Seafood
Region
French
Era
Edwardian
Source decade
1900s
Event
Sultan of Morocco’s visit, 1945
Main ingredient
Fish
Difficulty
Advanced