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Dressed Whitebait
Take the whitebait out of the water with the fingers, drain them, and throw them into a cloth upon which flour has been strewn. Shake them in the cloth to make the flour adhere to them, then toss them in a large wide sieve to free them from the superfluous flour. If the fish stick together, separate them, but they will not do this if they are fresh. Have ready plenty of boiling beef-fat (this is much better than lard, which is usually recommended), put the whitebait, a few at a time, into a wire basket, plunge in the boiling fat, and leave them for a minute or two. At the end of that time shake them to keep them from sticking together, and when they are slightly crisp without being browned they are done enough. Drain them from the fat while they are still in the basket, sprinkle a little salt upon them, pile them on a napkin, garnish with parsley, and serve very hot. Send quarters of lemon and brown bread and butter to table with them. Time to fry the whitebait, a few minutes.
A Victorian standard that survives almost unchanged in Britain, Spain and Italy. Everything depends on dry fish and fat hot enough to crisp them before they can absorb it.
- The hinge: fat temperature"plenty of boiling beef-fat" gives no number, but the recipe defines the target for you: hot enough to crisp the fish without browning them. Fat that is too cool leaves the flour pasty and the fish greasy; fat that is too hot browns them, which the recipe explicitly tells you to avoid. A thermometer helps, and let the fat recover between batches.
- What whitebait isThe immature fry of herring and sprat, usually a couple of inches long, cooked and eaten whole -- head, tail and all. Fishmongers and frozen-food aisles sell them as whitebait or as "small sprats". Comparable Mediterranean dishes use other small fry, some of which are now protected or restricted. Frozen bait should be thawed and blotted very dry before flouring.
- Beef-fatBeef dripping or rendered suet, which has a higher smoke point than lard and a savoury flavour the author clearly preferred. Any neutral high-smoke-point oil works if dripping is not to hand, though the taste is plainer.
- The cloth and sieveTossing in a floured cloth then shaking in a coarse sieve is still the best method: it coats each fish thinly and dumps the excess, which would otherwise burn in the fat. A colander or wide-mesh strainer does the same job.
- A few at a timeSmall batches are not fussiness. A large handful drops the fat temperature sharply and the fish steam together into a cake. Fry no more than a couple of ounces at once in a domestic pan.
- Timing"A minute or two" is about right: one to two minutes at temperature. Whitebait are done as soon as they stiffen and go faintly crisp; longer dries them out.
- Freshness testThe note that fresh fish will not stick together is a genuine quality check. Fish that clump into a mass have begun to break down and are best passed over.
- Yield and servingReckon 3-4 oz per person as a first course, 6 oz as a light main. Serve immediately with lemon, cayenne if you like, and thin brown bread and butter, as directed.