Baked Soles

Ingredients

• Fresh large soles
• 1 egg egg
• 1 ounce butter
• 1–2 teaspoon liquid butter
• 3 ounces bread-crumbs
• 2.5 ounces butter
• salt
• cayenne
• mace
• nutmeg

Instructions

1. Skin and cleanse the soles in the usual way, then wipe them dry.
2. Let the fish remain for an hour or more, closely folded in a clean cloth, if time permits.
3. Mix the slightly beaten egg with about an ounce of butter, just liquefied but not heated, at the mouth of the oven or before the fire.
4. Brush the fish all over with the butter-and-egg mixture.
5. Mix the very fine dry bread-crumbs with salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and nutmeg.
6. Cover the fish entirely with the seasoned bread-crumbs.
7. Pour a teaspoonful or two of liquid butter into a flat baking dish that will hold the fish well.
8. Lay the fish in the dish and sprinkle it with a little more butter.
9. Press the bread-crumbs lightly onto the fish with a broad-bladed knife.
10. Bake in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes.
11. For a more perfectly encrusted coating, dip or sprinkle the fish with bread-crumbs a second time after the first coating has been well moistened with butter.
12. When ready to serve, gently slide the fish onto the serving dish.