Dover Sole / Slime Fish

Dover Sole / Slime Fish
Live Fish [Slime Sole, Slippery Sole; Microstomus pacificus]

This fish is not anything like sole landed at Dover (England). This one is properly named "Slime Fish" and is used mainly for mink food. It is, however, also sometimes passed off to unsuspecting consumers as edible. Actually it is edible, though insipid, but used in recipes intended for real Solea sole it is an unmitigated disaster, turning to mush. Slime Fish infests coastal areas from southern Japan all the way around to just south of San Diego, California.

Solea solea which is a true sole, not a flounder, is not found outside European and North African waters, so it tends to be rather expensive around here, if you can find it at all. When a recipe calls for "Dover Sole", Petrale Sole (actually a flounder) will do fine, but not Pacificus. Photo by U.S. National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration = public domain..

More on Varieties of Fish (very large file)

Fillets The only really positive thing I can say about this fish is that it is so flavorless it will be liked by people who don't like fish. For every possible use there are better fish easily available - leave this one for the minks.

Buying: This fish is not found in the Asian fish markets here in Los Angeles. It can, however, be found as fillets in some supermarkets. The photo specimen fillets were purchased frozen from Trader Joe's at US $4.99/pound. To their credit they recommend pan frying and provide cooking instructions only for quick dry heat methods. The largest of the photo specimens was 9-3/4 inches long and very thin at 2-3/8 ounces. These are very tender and tend to be already breaking up in the package. They also exude a lot of water, so if you buy a pound, figure on cooking a lot less than that.

Cooking: Use only quick, dry heat cooking methods such as pan frying, broiling, grilling (wrapped in foil). Do Not use for complex recipes found in cookbooks - this fish will turn to mush.

For pan frying you will need a pretty good coating to keep this fish from sticking to the pan, and also to hold the fillet together once cooked. Handle carefully or it'll break up.

As an experiment I poached a couple of fillets. They shrank a lot and were so small I was able to lift them out intact. Eating them was another matter, the fillets fell apart into flakes at a touch.