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Recipe for Frying Fish
(New Haven.) Wash and dry the fish, sprinkle it well with flour, salt, and pepper, then dip it in egg and bread-crumbs or coarse oatmeal, and fry in a deep pan of boiling fat.
A bare-bones frying formula of the kind cooks were expected to fill in from experience. The gaps worth filling are fat temperature, fish thickness, and the order of the coating.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when the fish goes in, roughly 350-375F. Below that the coating absorbs grease, above it the crumbs brown before the fish is cooked.
- Dry the fish properlyThis is the hinge. Blot fillets on paper towel until the surface is matte; residual moisture loosens the flour and the whole coating slides off in the pan.
- The coating orderFlour seasoned with salt and pepper, then beaten egg, then crumbs or oatmeal. Press the crumbs on and let the coated fish rest ten minutes so the layers set.
- Coarse oatmealScottish practice, and it means pinhead or medium oatmeal, not rolled oats or instant porridge oats. It gives a nubbly, nutty crust and is the traditional treatment for herring.
- Deep panAn inch and a half of fat in a heavy pan is enough for fillets; a full deep-fryer's depth is only needed for whole small fish. Fry in batches so the temperature does not crash.
- TimingThin fillets need 2-3 minutes a side, thicker pieces 4-5, and whole small fish about 6-8. The fish is done at 145F internal, or when the flesh parts cleanly along the flake.
- Fat to useThe period would have used lard, beef drippings or clarified butter. Any refined oil with a high smoke point works; do not use unclarified butter, which will burn at frying heat.
- Yield and servingThe quantities are left to the cook: allow 6-8 oz of fish per person, one egg and about a cup of crumbs for every two pounds. Drain on a rack rather than paper so the crust stays crisp, and serve with lemon or a plain tartare.
The New Haven attribution places this among the regional contributions that make up With a Saucepan Over the Sea. The method itself is much older than the book: dredge, egg, crumb and fry is the standard European treatment for small fish and fillets, and the alternative of coarse oatmeal points to Scottish and northern English practice, where oatmeal was cheaper and more plentiful than wheat bread. Written this tersely, the recipe assumes a cook who already knows how hot her fat should be and how long a flounder takes. A page like this one is less an instruction than a reminder of the sequence.