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Whitebait with Bacon
Have in a small basin one pound very fresh, well cleaned and wiped whitebait; pour in a little cold milk, repeatedly turn in the milk, then place on a sieve; sprinkle six tablespoons cornmeal over, shake well, place in a frying basket and fry in boiling fat for two minutes. Lift up, thoroughly drain on a cloth, sprinkle over a half teaspoon salt and saltspoon cayenne pepper, turn them over and place on a hot dish with a folded napkin. Arrange six slices freshly broiled bacon over, decorate with six quarters lemon and a little parsley and serve.
A straightforward deep-fry that depends almost entirely on fat temperature and on the fish being bone dry before it meets the cornmeal. Everything else is garnish.
- Sourcing whitebaitWhitebait are the fry of small schooling fish — in Britain and the eastern US usually sprat, herring or silverside; in New Zealand, native galaxiids sold under strict seasonal rules. Frozen whitebait is the realistic option; thaw fully, then dry hard between towels, since surface water is what makes the coating slide off.
- "Well cleaned"Whitebait are traditionally eaten whole, heads, tails and all, and are not gutted. The instruction means rinsed and picked over for stray weed or larger fish, not dressed.
- Boiling fatRead this as deep fat at 375F. Below about 350F the cornmeal absorbs grease and the fish go limp; above 400F the coating darkens before the interior is set. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash.
- Two minutes is rightDo not extend it. These fish are a few inches long and cook through almost on contact; the two minutes is for colour and crispness, and more dries them out.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is roughly a quarter teaspoon. With a half teaspoon of salt over a pound of fish, that is a distinctly peppery seasoning — scale the cayenne back if you want the fish to lead.
- The milk and cornmealThe milk is there only to wet the surface so the meal clings; a brief dip is enough, and draining on the sieve prevents a pasty coat. Six tablespoons of cornmeal is generous for a pound, and the recipe's 'shake well' is there to lose the excess before the fish reach the basket.
- The folded napkinA period serving convention: the cloth on the hot dish absorbs residual fat and keeps the fry from steaming against porcelain. Paper towel does the same job less elegantly.
- YieldA pound of whitebait with six rashers of bacon serves three or four as a first course, two as a light main. Serve immediately — fried whitebait are at their best within a minute or two of leaving the fat.
Whitebait belongs to a class of dishes built on eating very small fish entire, a practice that arose wherever spring runs of fry could be netted in quantity. In England the Thames estuary catch became attached to a specific ritual: the whitebait dinners held at Greenwich and Blackwall through the nineteenth century, including the well-documented annual dinner attended by cabinet ministers, at which the fish was fried in flour and served with lemon and cayenne. This version, from a book that surveys national kitchens for an American readership, swaps the customary flour for cornmeal hat gives a coarser, sandier crust — and adds broiled bacon, moving the dish toward the fried-fish-and-pork pairing familiar from US river cooking.