before cooking lemon sole a la meuniere last night i consulted jane grigson's fish cookery, splendid book. grigson has this to say about sole a la meuniere:
"the miller has rarely enjoyed the respectful admiration of his fellow citizens. (old remarks such as: 'hair grows in the palms of an honest miller', were brought up to date not so long ago by an actress who desribed her ex-boss, an owner of many flour mills and cinemas, as having 'the sack in one hand and corn in the other'.) but the miller's wife, la meuniere, is another matter. in cooking at least her reputation is high. what cou7ld be more delicioius than a fresh trout or sole, dipped in flour and fried golden brown in butter."
the sole was delicious, but i thought, is there not at least the chance that rather than honouring the millers wife that the whole name is in fact some long surviving dirty joke?
Posted by flambingo at June 6, 2004 02:01 PM | TrackBack