Fried Sprats

Ingredients

• sprats
• salt
• flour
• cayenne
• brown bread and butter

Method

1. 1

   Wash and dry sprats, sprinkle with salt, and let sit for an hour.

2. 2

   Coat lightly with flour and fry in hot fat until crisp.

3. 3

   Serve with cayenne, cut lemon, and brown bread and butter.

As published

This recipe was extracted from English and French cookery (1890) by Percy Lindley, page 36. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

salt. Boil for 5 minutes, and when cold serve noth a little vinegar. The mussels should be quite fresh. Oyster Fricasse. — Fresh or tinned oysters are put in a china bowl, and placed over steam. For every ounce of butter heat 2 table- spoonfuls of milk or cream, according to size of dish. Add salt, mace, and cayenne to taste, and finally the liquor of the oysters. Beat to cream 2 or more yolks of eggs, add 2 spoonfuls of the oyster gravy (cold), and pour the prepared scalding, but not boiling, sauce to it ; add the heated oysters, and serve with toast sippets. . Oyster Toast. — Chop roughly 12 oysters, and mix them well with 1 anchovy, washed and boned, a little cream or condensed milk, and KISH -COOKERY. 53 thicken with a small piece of butter rolled in flour, season with a grain of cayenne ; boil up, and serve on hot buttered toast. Anchovy paste may be used instead of the anchovies. Scalloped Fish.. — Take cold cod, hake, or turbot, flake it and season with salt and pepper, moisten with a little milk, and stir in a good-sized piece of butter. Put this mixture in small scallop-shell tins, and bake a light brown. Skate, Crimped. — Cut into slices, roll and tie round ; put into highly salted water, and boil till done. Drain well, remove the string, dish with melted butter, caper, or anchovy sauce poured over. Sole, Fried. — The skinning of soles is for the eye ; when the skin is merely cleaned and scraped the full flavour of the fish is retained. The sole for frying should weigh between \ a pound and a pound. Put in a dish with a tablespoonful of vinegar an hour or so before cooking. Dry thoroughly and cover with breadcrumbs after coating with egg, adding a little salt and pepper. Place in the frying-pan dark side downward with plenty of fat at boiling-point. Fry for 4 minutes, moving the pan gently, then turn, and in 3 minutes re- move by inserting the points of the fork close to the head, and hold up to let the fat drain off, and serve with or without melted butter or sauce. Sole, Fillets of. — Having dried the fillets, divide them into neat pieces 2 or 3 inches long ; dip them in the beaten yolk of egg, and then in seasoned breadcrumbs. Make a little butter hot in the frying-pan, put in the fillets and cook them slowly until brown on one side, then turn and finish on the other. Sole, Fried, Fillets of. — These may either be rolled in one piece or divided into several, as in the foregoing recipe. In either case egg and crumb them thoroughly, place them in the wire-basket as you do them, which immerse in fat hot enough to crisp bread instantly. When done, put the fillets on paper to absorb any grease clinging to them, and serve as hot as possible. All kinds of flat fish can be filleted and cooked by these recipes, and will usually be found more economical than serving the fish whole. It is also economical to fillet the tail-end of cod, salmon, and turbot, and either fry or saut6 as may be pre- ferred. Salmon Cutlets. — Dip slices of salmon into olive oil and season with cayenne pepper and salt ; wrap in oiled paper and fry in boiling fat for 10 minutes over a clear fire, dry on a gridiron and serve hot. Sprats, Fried. — After the sprats are washed, wipe them dry in a cloth ; sprinkle a little salt over, and let them lie for an hour ; then put them on paper with flour, and turn them about until lightly coated with it. Put as many of the sprats into a wire frying-basket as will cover the bottom of it ; plunge this into hot fat, and keep gently mov- ing until the fish are crisp. When done, turn the sprats on to a sheet of paper to free them from grease, and serve instantly with cayenne, cut lemon, and brown bread and butter

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.