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Fried Smelts, Bourgeoise
Neatly wipe twelve large, fresh smelts and place in a dish. Season with a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, juice of a sound lemon and half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, turn well in seasoning and let infuse for thirty minutes. Prepare a frying batter, roll smelts in batter, drop in boiling fat and fry for ten minutes, turning once in a while. Remove, dress on hot dish with a folded napkin and serve with a remoulade sauce separately.
A straightforward fry, but the timing is the thing that has to change — ten minutes in hot fat will dry a smelt to a splinter.
- Frying timeA whole smelt is 4-6 inches long and thin; in fat at 360-375F it is done in 2-3 minutes, when the batter is set and pale gold. Ten minutes is far longer than the fish needs; older recipes often assumed cooler, unmeasured fat.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously around what you drop in, roughly 360-375F. Use a thermometer and fry in two batches so the temperature does not crash.
- The batter is assumed"Prepare a frying batter" leaves the reader to supply one; a thin flour-and-egg batter loosened with milk or beer to the consistency of cream suits the fish. Anything thicker risks being still raw inside when the fish is cooked.
- The half-hour marinadeLemon juice begins to firm and whiten the flesh, so thirty minutes is the outside limit for fish this delicate. Drain and pat the smelts dry before battering or the coating will slide off.
- Buying smelts"Twelve large, fresh" means whole fish, gutted, heads generally left on; they are often sold frozen now and should be thawed and dried thoroughly. Small ones are eaten bones and all.
- The folded napkinA standard serving convention of the period for fried fish; the linen also takes up some draining fat. A rack over paper does the draining job before the fish reaches the table.
- RemouladeA mayonnaise sharpened with mustard, capers, anchovy and herbs, served cold alongside. Make it before the fish goes into the fat; fried smelts wait for nothing.
- YieldTwelve smelts serve two as a main course or three or four as a first course.
Smelts were a cheap, seasonal glut fish along the North Atlantic, netted in large numbers during their spring runs up rivers, and they turn up often in American and European cookery of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — fried whole, en brochette, or served in a paper case. The label bourgeoise in a French-trained kitchen signals plain household cooking rather than restaurant elaboration: no forcemeat, no aspic, just a seasoned marinade, batter and hot fat. Dressing fried fish on a folded napkin was a standard convention of the period's table service.