Fried Perch
Wash, scale, and clean the fish carefully, wipe them dry, and flour them lightly over; then rub off the flour, dip them into beaten egg, and afterwards into finely grated bread crumbs, and fry them in plenty of boiling fat, until they are nicely browned. Drain them for a few minutes on an inverted sieve, serve on a hot dish, and garnish with parsley. Shrimp sauce, anchovy sauce, or plain melted butter are fine with perch. Time to fry varies with size.
A plain egg-and-crumb fry, written when perch came from a local river rather than a fish counter. The technique holds up; only the vagueness about heat and time needs filling in.
- The flouring step is not a mistakeFlour lightly, then rub the excess off. The point is a thin tacky film that grips the egg, not a coating; loose flour under egg and crumbs turns pasty and lifts the crust off in the pan.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil. The period phrase means fat hot enough to shimmer and hiss, roughly 350-365F. Use a thermometer, and use enough oil to float the fish clear of the pan bottom.
- Time to fryFor whole pan-sized perch of 6-8 oz, 3-4 minutes a side; skinned fillets need 2-3 minutes total. The fish is done at 145F, or when the flesh at the backbone has just lost its translucency.
- Bread crumbs"Finely grated bread crumbs" are dry crumbs from stale bread, closer to fine dry crumbs than panko. Panko works but gives a coarser, puffier crust than the original intends.
- DrainingThe inverted sieve keeps the underside from steaming; a wire rack set over a tray does the same job. Do not drain on paper towel resting flat, which softens the crust you just built.
- Scales and spinesPerch scales are small and tenacious, and both yellow and European perch carry sharp dorsal spines and a spiny gill cover. Scale under water to keep them from flying, and snip the dorsal fin off before handling much.
- SaucesShrimp and anchovy sauces of the period were usually built on a butter-and-flour (melted butter) base, thinned with milk, water or fish stock depending on the book, the first finished with picked shrimps, the second with anchovy essence. Melted butter with lemon is the honest modern substitute.
- YieldFigure one whole perch of 6-8 oz per person as a course, two for a main plate.
Perch was a common freshwater fish in inland cooking in Britain, northern Europe and the American Great Lakes before sea fish travelled well, and books of this sort often list it beside trout and pike as fare a household might get fresh and fry the same day. The egg-and-crumb treatment described here is a common nineteenth-century English method for small firm-fleshed fish, and the sauces suggested fit that tradition: shrimp sauce and anchovy sauce were frequent accompaniments to fried and boiled fish in Victorian cookery, their salt and shellfish savour lifting a mild-tasting fish. The recipe garnishes with parsley and serves on a hot dish, with the sauces named separately rather than poured over.