Cassell's dictionary of cookery

There is one delicious little fish that deserves special notice, and that is whitebait. How very few cooks are there who can send this delicacy to table ! Indeed, very often in country houses, when what are called grand dinners are given, very often a man is specially sent down from London to cook the whitebait. Of course, we presume the whitebait to be fresh. Now, what is the difficulty? I think the principal one is drying the whitebait. I will therefore describe exactly how whitebait is cooked at some of those charming little river-side hotels. The whitebait is first thrown on to flour on a cloth, not merely a floured cloth, but flour an inch deep. The whitebait, when thus dosed in flour, is put into a large sifter or very coarse, open cane sieve — something like that used for sifting oats — and shaken : all the loose flour is thus shaken off. The floured and sifted whitebait is then put in a wire basket, and plunged into boiling fat. Unless the fat be really boiling, and sufficiently deep to cover the fish, it is of no use. Half a minute or a little more is quite sufficient to cook the whitebait, which must be sent to table instantly. Recollect, however, the whitebait must be cooked directly it is floured. It is no use flouring the whitebait and putting it by ; if you wait any time you will have it flabby and spoilt. The one point to be remembered is expedition. Take care also that the whitebait is not in a broken state. Plain whitebait is generally followed with a little devilled whitebait. There are two kinds, called black devil and red devil. The correct way to devil whitebait is to take out the whitebait basket in the middle of cooking, and pepper the fish, using mixed black pepper and salt for a black-devil, and mixed cayenne pepper and salt for a red-devil. The basket should then be re-plunged into the boiling fat for a few seconds, and the whitebait sent to table. In nearly all hotels — and really the plan seems quite unobjectionable — the devilled whitebait is made from the ordinary whitebait left and sent downstairs from the first couise. This is peppered and replaced in the whitebait basket, which is then re-plunged into the boiling fat — a very few seconds, of course, being necessary to heat it. An indispensable accompaniment to whitebait is thin brown bread and butter and cut lemon. Whitebait, however, is such an exceedingly delicate fish that it seems to possess an extraordinary property of bringing out the flavour of the butter. Consequently, unless the butter is of the very best description it will taste bad. xlii cassell's dictionary of cookery. Unfortunately, too, this bad flavour will be attributed to the fish rather than to the butter. Remember also in serving whitebait, as in serving a soufflet, a very few minutes' delay means ruin.