Smelts, Fried
INGREDIENTS. - Smelts, ègg and bread-crumbs, a little flour boiling lard. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d. to 2s. per dozen.
Smelts should be very fresh, and not washed more than is necessary to clean BROCHET OF SMELTS.OR them. Dry them in a cloth, lightly flour, dip them in egg and sprinkle over with very fine bread crumbs, and put them into boiling lard. Fry of a nice pale brown, and be careful not to take off the light roughness of the crumbs, or their beauty will be drainer, and serve with plain melted butter. spoiled. Dry them before the fire on a This fish is often used as a garnishing.
TIME.-5 minutes.
SEASONABLE from October to May.
A straightforward crumbed fry that depends almost entirely on the coating staying crisp and rough. Everything else is a matter of heat and speed.
- The hinge: don't crush the crumbsThe instruction not to disturb the "light roughness of the crumbs" is the whole point. Crumb the fish, let them sit five minutes so the coating sets, then move them with a slotted spoon or spider rather than tongs, and drain them on a rack rather than piling them on paper.
- Fat and temperature"Boiling lard" means deep fat; the recipe gives no temperature, but the usual modern equivalent is roughly 350-375F. Lard still works and gives a clean flavour; a neutral high-smoke-point oil serves the same purpose. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash.
- TimeFive minutes is long for a fish the size of a finger. Whole smelts of 3-4 in. are done in 2-3 minutes, when the crumb is pale gold. Larger ones may take four.
- "Plain melted butter"In Victorian English cookery this is not simply melted butter but a thin butter sauce thickened with a little flour. Straight warm butter with lemon is closer to how the dish is served now.
- Buying and cleaningSmelts are sold whole. The recipe asks only that they be cleaned as little as necessary and dried, and small smelts are often cooked without gutting; if that unsettles you, slit and clean them, but keep them dry — the crumb will not adhere to a damp fish.
- Drying by the fireSubstitute a low oven, about 250F, with the fish on a rack, to hold a batch while the rest fry. This keeps the crust dry where a covered plate would steam it soft.
- YieldReckon six to eight smelts per person as a first course, a dozen as a light main. They are small enough to be eaten whole, bones and all.
- SeasonOctober to May reflects the cold-weather fishery for wild European smelt. Frozen smelts are now sold year round; thaw and dry them thoroughly before crumbing.
The smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) was a prized small fish in Britain, netted in estuaries — the Thames, the Medway, the Norfolk rivers — and valued for a faint smell of fresh cucumber that was taken as the test of its freshness. Being small and thin-skinned, it was commonly crumbed and fried whole, and Mrs Beeton notes here that the fried fish was also used as a garnish around a larger dish. The price given, 1s. 6d. to 2s. a dozen, was not cheap. Related fish are still eaten this way elsewhere — Baltic and Great Lakes smelt fries, and Japan's wakasagi.