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Ling, Fried
Take two pounds of fresh ling, cut it into slices three-quarters of an inch thick, rub these over with pepper and salt, dredge a little flour over them, and fry in boiling fat. Parsley and butter, or lemon and liver sauce may be served with them. Time to fry, ten minutes. Probable cost, 10d. Sufficient for three persons.
A plain fried-fish formula from a period when ling was cheap and plentiful in British markets. Two details need attention: the fish itself, and the frying time.
- What ling isLing (Molva molva) is a long, lean member of the cod family, firmer and coarser-grained than cod. If your fishmonger has none, use thick cod, hake, pollock or monkfish cut to the same thickness.
- Ten minutes is too longThree-quarter-inch slices of lean white fish will usually be cooked through in a few minutes total in hot fat; held for ten minutes the flesh dries out and shreds. Cooler fat may account for some of the difference in the original timing.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when the fish goes in, about 350-375F. Shallow-fry in a heavy pan with half an inch of oil or clarified fat rather than deep-frying, since the slices are broad and flat.
- Salting aheadRubbing with salt and pepper 15 to 20 minutes before flouring firms the surface and draws off some moisture, which helps the flour adhere and the crust brown. Pat dry before dredging.
- Parsley and butterIn Victorian usage this generally means melted butter thickened slightly with flour and finished with chopped parsley, closer to a thin white sauce than to plain drawn butter. A modern equivalent is butter warmed with lemon juice and parsley.
- Liver sauceA sauce made from the cod or ling liver, typically worked into a butter sauce; the original pairs it with lemon. Fish livers are almost never sold at retail now; ask a fishmonger who breaks down whole fish, or leave it out.
- Yield and costTwo pounds of fish serves three generously as a main course, as the original states. The "10d." is tenpence in pre-decimal currency, working out at about fivepence a pound -- an inexpensive fish.
Ling was for centuries a working fish rather than a fashionable one: caught on long lines in deep northern waters, and most often split, salted and dried for keeping, in the manner of stockfish. Cassell's, compiled for the late-Victorian middle-class household, includes it among the inexpensive fishes, and the entry's careful note of cost, portions and time follows the house style of a dictionary meant to help a cook budget as much as to help her cook. The suggested liver sauce belongs to an economy of the whole fish that has largely disappeared from retail fishmongery; in the same period cod and ling livers were also being boiled down for oil, medicinal and otherwise. Fresh ling still appears on British and Scandinavian counters.