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Fried Smelts with Parmesan Cheese
Neatly wipe twelve good-sized fresh smelts, season all over with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, then lightly roll again in freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Arrange in frying basket and fry in boiling fat for eight minutes, lift up, drain, arrange on a hot dish, decorate with six quarters of lemon and serve.
A four-line recipe that assumes a great deal, including a step it never gives. Two things need fixing before it works: the coating and the time.
- The missing first coat"Roll again in freshly grated Parmesan" implies a previous rolling that the text omits; fried fish recipes of this period usually pass the fish through flour and beaten egg before the crumb or cheese coat. Dry grated cheese has little to hold to on a merely wiped fish, so flour and egg first, then the Parmesan.
- Eight minutes is far too longSmelts are finger-sized and cook through in two to three minutes in hot fat. At eight minutes they are dry inside and the cheese coating is scorched bitter. Fry until the crust is deep gold and stop.
- Fat temperature"Boiling fat" is the period phrase for deep fat hot enough to fry, broadly in the 350-375F range. Grated Parmesan browns faster than breadcrumbs, so keep to the lower end; too hot and the cheese darkens before the fish is warm through.
- Frying basketA wire basket lowered into a deep kettle of fat. It works badly here — cheese coating sticks to the mesh. Lower the smelts individually into the fat with tongs and lift them out with a spider or slotted spoon.
- Whole fish, whole fishSmelts are traditionally cooked and eaten entire, head and bones included; the skeleton is soft enough to eat after frying. If you prefer, have them gutted through the gills, but do not fillet them.
- SeasoningA teaspoon of salt for twelve small fish is about right for whole smelts, but Parmesan brings its own salt. Cut the salt by half if the cheese is well aged.
- YieldTwelve good-sized smelts is a first course for four or a light main course for two, with the six lemon quarters as the whole of the sauce.
The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its entries are written in the clipped shorthand of a professional who expects the reader to know the basic breading procedure already — which is why the first coating here simply vanishes. Smelts themselves were a cheap, seasonal glut fish in the period: they run inshore to spawn in late winter and spring, were sold cheaply in East Coast and Great Lakes markets, and appeared often on Lenten menus because they were small, quick and needed no butchering. Dredging them in grated Parmesan rather than breadcrumbs is the Italian touch, and Parmesan was among the imported cheeses to be had in American cities at the time.