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To Fry Perch
Skin, salt, and roll in Indian meal (leaving the head on); fry in hot pork fat until a golden color.
A single line of instruction covering a whole method. The gaps are worth filling in, since almost everything here depends on the fat being hot enough before the fish goes in.
- Indian mealIndian meal is cornmeal. Fine or medium stone-ground gives the best crust; coarse polenta grind stays gritty in the short time the fish takes to cook.
- Pork fatRendered leaf lard or bacon drippings, about half an inch deep in a heavy skillet. Bring it to 350-375F before the fish goes in, or the meal absorbs grease instead of setting into a crust.
- Skinning perchPerch have small, tightly set scales that are tedious to remove, which is likely why the instruction is to skin rather than scale. Work the skin off from the head end with a knife tip and pliers or a dry towel for grip.
- Salt and restSalt the fish and let it sit a few minutes before dredging. The surface moisture drawn out is what makes the meal stick, so do not rinse it off.
- Head onLeft on for the sake of the cheek meat and because a whole small fish holds its shape in the pan. Gut it and remove the gills; the fins can stay, since they crisp up.
- TimingWhole pan-size perch, 6 to 9 inches, need roughly 3 to 4 minutes a side. The flesh should reach 145F and pull cleanly from the backbone.
- YieldReckon on two to three whole perch per person, more if the fish are small. Fry in batches rather than crowding the pan, which drops the fat temperature.
Perch was a fish of the household as much as the market: freshwater, abundant, and so it turns up in American cookbooks as something a family caught and ate the same day. The cornmeal-and-pork-fat treatment is the standard American fry for small freshwater fish, running from New England through the Midwest and down into the South, where the same method produces catfish and the hushpuppies fried in the leftover fat. "Indian meal" for cornmeal was already old-fashioned by the turn of the twentieth century, and its survival here is worth noting. The terseness is characteristic too.