Fried Fish
Perch, brook trout, catfish and all small fish are best fried. Clean, wash quickly in cold water, and immediately wipe dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg and then bread crumbs and fry in hot oil, if convenient, as it is much better than either dripping or lard. Never use butter as it is apt to burn and has a tendency to soften the fish. Be sure that the oil, lard, or dripping is very hot before putting in the fish. A crumb of bread thrown in, browning quickly, shows the fat is hot enough, and the fish will not absorb the grease.
A method rather than a fixed recipe, and the whole thing turns on the temperature of the fat. Everything else is bookkeeping.
- How hot is "very hot"For shallow or deep frying small fish, 350-375F. The bread-crumb test in the original is sound: a crumb dropped in should brown in under a minute and float, sizzling briskly, rather than sinking and slowly bubbling. A thermometer removes the guesswork.
- Dripping and lardDripping is rendered fat saved from roast beef or pork; lard is rendered pork fat. Both work, both carry flavour. "Oil" in an American kitchen of this period could mean olive or cottonseed; today any neutral oil with a high smoke point — peanut, canola, sunflower — serves the same purpose.
- Why not butterThe advice is still correct. Butter's milk solids brown and then burn well below frying temperature, and its water content steams the coating soft instead of crisping it. Clarified butter avoids the burning but is an expensive way to fry a perch.
- Dry the fish properly"Wash quickly and immediately wipe dry" is the hinge. Surface water thins the egg, loosens the crumb coat, and drops the fat temperature the moment the fish goes in. Pat dry with paper towel and let the coated fish sit five minutes before frying so the crumbs set.
- Coating orderA light dusting of flour before the egg gives the egg something to grip; the original leaves it out, and the crumbs will sometimes slide off without it. Season the fish itself, as written, not just the crumbs.
- TimingSmall whole fish and fillets need roughly 3-4 minutes a side in a shallow pan, or 3-5 minutes total in deep fat. Flesh should be opaque and flake at the thickest point, about 145F. These fish are done quickly and suffer badly from an extra two minutes.
- Don't crowd the panFry in batches. Each fish added drops the fat temperature, and if it falls far enough the coating absorbs oil instead of sealing — exactly the greasiness the original is warning against.
- DrainingOnto a rack, not onto paper laid flat, and not stacked. Trapped steam undoes the crust in a minute.
- YieldReckon one whole pan-dressed perch or trout of 6-8 oz per person as a light course, two if it is the main dish. The original gives no yield.
Frying small freshwater fish — perch, brook trout, catfish — has an obvious practical logic: they are cooked through in minutes and were caught locally rather than shipped, which mattered before reliable refrigeration. The bread-crumb test for fat temperature was standard instruction in the era: thermometers for sugar and fat work were sold in the period but were uncommon in home kitchens, so cooks were taught to read the fat by eye and ear.