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Fish, Fried
Fish to be nicely fried should be wiped very dry, and floured before being put into the pan of boiling fat. Next to oil, clarified dripping is the best. Shake the pan gently until hot through. If you want the fish to look very nice, dip it into egg, and sprinkle with bread-crumbs before frying. Drain before the fire, and dish on a hot napkin. The time required for this mode of cooking will vary according to the size, quality, and thickness of the fish. (See FRY. TO.)
This is a method entry rather than a dish, and the whole of it turns on one thing: dry fish, hot fat. Everything else is refinement.
- Wipe very drySurface moisture is what makes flour slide off and fat spit. Pat the fillets with a cloth or paper, then flour immediately before they go in the pan, not in advance, or the coating turns to paste.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to shimmer and sizzle on contact, roughly 350-375F. Below that the coating absorbs grease; animal fats such as dripping will begin to smoke not far above it.
- Clarified drippingRendered beef or pork fat, strained of its sediment so it can take a high heat. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point does the same job now; ghee or lard behaves closest to the original.
- Shake the pan gentlyThe book does not say why; the likeliest reading is that it stops the fish welding to the metal in the first moments, before the crust has set. Once the coating has firmed, leave it alone until you turn it.
- Egg and crumbsFlour first, then beaten egg, then fine dry crumbs; the flour is what gives the egg something to grip. Panko is coarser than Victorian raspings and gives a rougher, crisper finish.
- TimingThe book declines to give a figure, sensibly. Reckon 3-4 minutes a side for fillets under an inch, or about 10 minutes total per inch of thickness, until the flesh is opaque and parts easily at the thickest point.
- "Drain before the fire"Draining in front of the open fire, i.e. somewhere warm enough to keep the fish hot while the fat runs off. A wire rack in a low oven is the modern equivalent; draining on paper alone traps steam and softens the crust you just built.
- The hot napkinA folded linen cloth on the serving dish, there to absorb fat at table. It is period presentation, not a cooking step, and a heated platter serves as well.
Frying was one of the mainstays of the Victorian fish kitchen, and the instruction to use "clarified dripping" next after oil says a good deal about the household economy this dictionary was written for: beef fat was a by-product of the roast, saved, strained and reused, while olive oil was imported and priced accordingly. The egg-and-breadcrumb finish -- flour, egg, raspings, in that order -- was common English practice for anything meant to look presentable at table, and serving "on a hot napkin" was a widespread nineteenth-century convention, used to blot fat. The cross-reference to a separate FRY, TO entry reflects how the dictionary was organised: technique explained once under the general heading, then invoked by name in individual entries.