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Sole comes in all shapes and sizes. As a fish buyer, you can choose from countless sole products. There is “slip” sole, sole 1, sole small-medium, sole large-medium, Dover sole, Common sole, English sole… the many different types and names can be quite confusing.
This article explains everything you need to know as a buyer of fresh sole products.
As a buyer, you are always looking for fresh fish of the highest possible quality. As you do when buying fresh sole. Sole is one of the tastiest but perhaps also one of the most expensive flatfish from the sea. When buying fresh sole, you definitely want to make the right choice.
In this article, we talk about the different types, sizes, and names of sole. We explain what to look for when purchasing a high-quality fresh sole, give you some information about sustainable fishing methods, and the best season to catch top-quality sole.
The topics covered in this article include:
Sole is a particularly special fish as it distinguishes itself from all other fish species in terms of taste and appearance. As a flatfish, sole is completely different to, for example, sea bass, sea bream, salmon or tuna. With its exclusive flavour and structure, sole is a true delicacy for every fish lover.
Sole (Solea solea) belongs to the flatfish family, just like plaice, dab and the European flounder. These flatfish varieties have many similarities. Flatfish, for example, always start their lives as ‘regular fish’. This means that they are rounder with one eye on each side. They then still swim freely in the water column. When they get bigger, they undergo a metamorphosis and one eye moves to the other side of the body. The young fish changes into a flatfish, and from then on, it swims with an undulating movement, low to the seabed.
Exactly how quickly and when flatfish change is different for each species. The sole undergoes this transformation very quickly: when it is just over one centimetre in size. Furthermore, the sole distinguishes itself from other flatfish by its oval shape. This is also how ‘sole’ got its name.
Another distinctive and striking feature of sole is the tactile threads located under its mouth. As it moves across the seabed, the sole use these threads to feel and smell for food. The diet of sole consists mainly of worms and small crustaceans.
As we explained in the introduction, sole comes in all shapes and sizes, under various names. As a fish buyer, you truly have a wide variety of sole products to choose from. The different varieties and names of sole are explained below.
A “slip” sole is the smallest sole size. The smaller the fish, the less meat it has. Therefore, you might think that slip sole is the least frequently sold of all the varieties of sole. However, this is absolutely not the case. Due to their convenient size, the cleaned slip sole fits in a pan much more easily and is thus very easy to prepare. In addition, larger sole – with more fish meat – are often more expensive. Finally, during the winter months, almost a quarter of the meat of a larger sole is lost due to the large pieces of sole roe. This is hardly ever the case with slip soles.
The other most common and most frequently purchased size sole is divided into five categories numbered 1 to 5. Category 5 is the smallest category of sole, Sole 1 – apart from slip sole. In shops, many large-sized sole are also called ‘English sole’, but here we simply stick to ‘sole’. Apart from the names being different, it simply is the same fish.
Sole 1 is, therefore, the smallest size of the other five categories; just a little bigger than the slip sole and smaller than the small intermediate-sized sole. There are about six pieces of Sole 1 in one kilo of sole.
The fourth category includes small-medium sole (or Sole 2). This type of sole is about 30 centimetres and weighs between 300 and 400 grams each. Small-medium sole is a common size and is often sold in fish shops. The sole is not too large in size and therefore easy to prepare in your own kitchen. For the best results, you first fry the sole whole in butter, usually with a layer of flour and some salt and pepper. After frying it, you can easily remove the fish meat from the bone with a spoon… delicious!
Medium-large sole (or sole 400/500) is the most common and best-selling sole size. In terms of price, it is not yet as expensive as the large, fat Dover sole, but the medium-large sole has a lot of fish meat. Medium-large sole is around 38 centimetres and weighs 400 to 500 grams. Approximately one-third of the sole remains when filleted. That is why the medium-large sole is a popular size in restaurants: 150 to 170 grams of sole fillet is a perfect amount per person to accompany a dish.
Dover sole is also a popular size sole. These soles weigh 500 grams or more. Because they contain a lot of fish meat, they are very suitable for filleting, even before preparing them. For this reason, Dover sole is very popular and somewhat more expensive. Dover sole is also often found on a restaurant’s menu; with a hotchpotch of red cabbage or beetroot, you need little else for a delicious and complete main course!
Finally, category 1: common sole. This type of sole is the largest of the sole varieties. They are longer than 40 centimetres and weigh at least 600 grams. The difference between the Dover and the common sole is not that much: not every fish supplier or fish auction distinguishes between these two categories.
The above sole categories are all displayed whole (including head, tail and skin) at the fish auction. Some fish suppliers then process the fresh sole in their own way, according to the wishes of their customers. Thus, you can buy a sole cleaned and ready to cook, with or without skin, and with or without its head.
Top-quality fresh sole is best delivered as a whole sole. They dry out less quickly and retain their flavour longer if the skin, head and tail are still attached.
According to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the main stocks of the Dutch North Sea fishing industry are in good shape. In recent years, plaice numbers have even shown a strong upward trend. Sole numbers have also been above the safe level since 2012. This is partly due to an extremely well-controlled management plan. Climate change has also caused more and more sole to move northwards into the warmer waters of the North Sea.
In the Netherlands, sole is caught mainly using innovative pulse fishing gear. With pulse fishing, weak current pulses disturb the sole on the seabed, causing them to swim into the net. This method of fishing virtually eliminates bycatch and causes much less seabed disturbance than beam trawling, for example.
Because pulse nets are much lighter than other nets, vessels only need a lightweight engine, which means they use much less fuel. Another advantage of the lower fishing speed is that the soles do not thrash about in the nets when they are caught. They are not pulled out of the water in one swoop, so there is no stress on the fish, and they do not hurt or injure themselves. This prevents bruising of the fish flesh, and naturally, this is more animal friendly.
In 2018, a study was conducted by Wageningen Marine Research on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, named Platvis in beeld – Stimulans voor netinnovatie in de tongvisserij (Flatfish in the picture – Stimulus for net innovation in sole fishing). By making underwater recordings in the pulse nets, the behaviour of various species of flatfish was studied. They found out, for instance, that sole has the largest swimming capacity of all flatfish, which makes it the only fish that can swim against the current. By developing even more efficient fishing nets in the future, sole can be caught and separated from other fish species much more easily. The result: even better sustainable sole fishing.
he best fishing period for sole is from June to about the end of February. As with plaice and many other fish species, sole becomes fat in the summer and is at its best from July to October. As it gets colder, the fish gradually become leaner.
In winter, it is also the time for roe. Especially from March onwards, larger soles are filled with roe on one side. On the one hand, this is annoying because you pay a lot of money for a large sole when almost a quarter of the sole fillet is lost due to roe.
On the other hand, a lot of people are really fond of roe. When sole is cleaned or filleted at the fishmongers’, the pieces of roe are removed from the sole and kept separate in a container to sell. The roe is then dipped in batter, fried in hot oil and served with salt and pepper. That way, hardly any of the expensive sole is wasted in the end.
Are you a buyer looking for high-quality fresh sole? Then you have come to the right place! Mooijer-Volendam is a strong and flexible supplier for the hospitality industry, fishmongers, specialised retailers, speciality shops and general retailers. As a fish wholesaler, Mooijer-Volendam also sets high standards for the quality of fresh fish. Our regular fish suppliers deliver fresh AAA-quality sole products to our customers several times a week.
Are you curious about our complete range of sole products at Mooijer-Volendam? At Mooijer-Volendam, we have a wide range of fresh sole products in various varieties and sizes. All our sole products bear the MSC quality label.
Curious about our fresh sole products?