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Smelts, Bay Shore
Place twelve very fresh, good-sized smelts on a plate. Season with half a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon curry powder, two saltspoons paprika and one tablespoon melted butter. Repeatedly turn the smelts in the seasoning, then lightly roll them in a little grated Parmesan cheese, place them in a frying basket and fry in boiling fat for eight minutes. Remove, drain thoroughly on a cloth, dress on a dish with a folded napkin, decorate with six quarters of lemon and a little parsley greens and serve.
A straightforward fry, but the two numbers that matter — the frying time and the saltspoon — both need translating.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons of paprika is half a teaspoon. That puts salt, curry and paprika at equal measure.
- Eight minutes is far too longWhole smelts are 4-6 inches and thin; in fat at 350-375F they are done in 2-3 minutes, when the coating is set and the fin tips are crisp. Eight minutes gives dry, cotton-textured flesh and scorched cheese.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when food goes in, roughly 350-375F. Older kitchens judged it by a bread cube browning in under a minute.
- Parmesan browns fastGrated cheese is not a batter and will darken well before the interior of a heavier fish would cook. Keep the coating thin and shake off the loose crumbs, or they burn in the fat and taint the batch.
- The fishBuy smelts whole and very fresh, heads and tails left on; small ones are often fried ungutted and eaten bones and all, though the recipe says nothing either way. Rainbow smelt is the usual market fish now; frozen ones must be thawed and patted completely dry or the coating slides off.
- Frying basketA wire basket keeps twelve slim fish from sticking together and lets them come out all at once. A spider or slotted spoon works, but lower them in a few at a time so the fat temperature holds.
- Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; twelve smelts are a small dish, and the six lemon quarters may point to more than two portions. The folded napkin on the dish helped absorb draining fat; a rack over paper does the same job better, and the fish should go to the table immediately.
Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, filled his books with dishes named for places, and Bay Shore is presumably the village on the south shore of Long Island, on Great South Bay. Smelt were then a cheap, seasonal fish, sold by the pound and fried whole. Commercial curry powder was available in American kitchens by this date, used less as Indian seasoning than as a general warm-yellow flavouring, and the grated cheese stands in for a flour or crumb coating.