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Fish Balls with Bacon
Have a fish-cake. Divide it into six equal parts. Sift two tablespoons flour on a corner of the table, then gently roll each piece in the flour, giving them nice ball forms. Plunge them into boiling fat and fry for eight minutes, or until of a golden colour. Remove, thoroughly drain, dress on a hot dish. Place a slice of broiled bacon on top of each, decorate with a little parsley greensand serve.
A short entry that assumes you already have the previous page's fish-cake mixture in hand. Everything hinges on that mixture being cold and firm before it is shaped.
- "Have a fish-cake"This is a cross-reference, not an ingredient. It points to a cooked fish mixture given elsewhere in the book, already made and cooled; such mixtures were commonly fish (often salt cod) mashed with potato, egg and seasoning. Any firm, well-seasoned fish-and-potato mixture will do; the recipe specifies no weight, only that the cake be divided into six.
- Chill before shapingA warm or loose mixture will slump in the fat and shed its coating. Refrigerate it until it holds a clean shape, then roll and flour, and let the floured balls sit ten minutes so the coating sets.
- Fat temperature"Boiling fat" carries no thermometer reading; in modern terms deep fat of roughly 360-375F gives the effect wanted. Cooler than that and the balls absorb grease; hotter and the flour browns before the centre is hot.
- Eight minutes is too longEight minutes may be long -- The mixture is already cooked, so you are only heating it through and colouring the crust, and the recipe's own qualifier "or until of a golden colour" is the better guide. Depending on the size of the balls this may take rather less than eight minutes; overlong frying risks a split, oil-logged ball.
- The flour coatingTwo tablespoons of flour on a bare table is the period method; a plate or shallow tray is easier and no less authentic. Flour alone gives a thin, delicate crust rather than the crisp shell of egg-and-crumb — expect it to be pale gold, not deep brown.
- The bacon"Broiled" here means grilled or pan-crisped until firm but still pliable, one slice per ball, cut short enough to sit on top. Cook it first and keep it warm; the balls will not wait.
- YieldSix balls, serving two or three at breakfast or lunch. Serve immediately — a fried fish ball loses its crust within minutes on a plate.
Fried fish balls of this kind belong to the salt-cod tradition of the North Atlantic, where dried cod was a year-round staple and leftover boiled fish and potato were routinely bound with egg and fried for breakfast. In nineteenth-century New England they were a Sunday-morning fixture, often eaten with baked beans; the same economy appears across the Iberian and Scandinavian coasts in different guises. What distinguishes this version is the presentation: a slice of broiled bacon crowning each ball and a sprig of parsley, a plated garnish that suggests the dining-room version of a thrift dish. The instruction to "have a fish-cake" also suggests something about how these books were used, with one basic preparation assumed to be already at hand.