To Dress White Bait

Ingredients

• three or four handsful of flour
• a very deep frying-pan, nearly full of boiling fat
• a cut lemon
• slices of brown bread and butter

Method

1. 1

   Do not touch the fish with hands; shake in flour, then separate in a sieve.

2. 2

   Fry in boiling fat until done, without browning.

3. 3

   Serve piled high with lemon and bread.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 96. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

O DRESS WIIITE BAIT. ( Greenwich Receipt.') [In season in July, August, and September.] This delicate little fish requires great care to dress it well. Do not touch it with the hands, but throw it from your dish or basket into a cloth, with three or four handsful of flour, and shake it well ; then put it into a bait sieve, to separate it from the superfluous flour. Have ready a very deep frying-pan, nearly full of boiling fat, throw in the fish, which will be done in an instant : they must not be allowed to take any colour, for if browned, they are spoiled. Lift them out, and dish them upon a silver or earthenware drainer, with- out a napkin, piling them very high in the centre. Send them to table with a cut lemon, and slices of brown bread and butter

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