Fried Smelts
To clean smelts, spread open outer gills, and with the forefinger take hold of the inner gills and pull gently; the parts unfit for food are all attached to these inner gills, and come away together, leaving the smelt in perfect shape. Rinse thoroughly and wipe dry. If smelts are small, dip in milk and roll in flour, or in egg and bread crumbs. Fry in deep fat. 1 cup salt codfish 2 cups potatoes
A method note more than a recipe: the useful part is the gill-pull for gutting a small fish whole. Everything after that is standard deep-frying.
- The hinge is the gill trickHooking the inner gills and drawing them out brings the viscera with them, so the fish stays uncut and holds its shape in the fat. Give a steady pull rather than a yank; the tract is likeliest to come away whole if the fish is very fresh.
- Stray text at the end"1 cup salt codfish 2 cups potatoes" belongs to the next entry in the section, almost certainly codfish balls. It is not part of the smelt recipe and should be ignored.
- Fat temperatureThe book assumes you know deep fat. Aim for 375F; smelts are thin and cook in 2 to 3 minutes, turning golden. Cooler fat and they absorb grease, hotter and the coating darkens before the flesh sets.
- "If smelts are small"The recipe gives no size and does not say what to do with larger fish. Milk and flour gives a thin crisp shell; egg and crumbs gives a heavier one.
- Frying fatLard and beef-suet fats were common in kitchens of this period, often kept and reused; vegetable shortenings and cottonseed oil were also in use. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point does the same job.
- Buying themSmelts are usually sold whole and frozen now, often already cleaned, in which case skip the gill step. Heads and tails were traditionally left on. Allow about 1/2 lb per person as a course.
- ServingDrain on paper, salt while hot, and serve with lemon or a tartar sauce. They are eaten bones and all when small, which is much of their appeal.
Smelts were a cheap, seasonal, abundant fish along the North Atlantic coast, running in huge numbers into rivers to spawn, and they turn up constantly in American cookbooks of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an inexpensive fried dish. Their name comes from Old English and the fish were long noted for a distinctive cucumber-like smell when very fresh, which was often said to serve as a test of freshness. The Metropolitan Cook Book was issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and given free to policyholders, part of a broader effort by insurers to promote thrift and household hygiene among wage-earning families; that explains the tone here, which is less about flavor than about competent handling of a small fish without waste.