Whitebait

Ingredients

• Strew some flour on a cloth
• Take the 'bait' out of the water
• Sprinkle lightly with salt
• pepper, not too highly

Method

1. 1

   Roll the drained whitebait in flour, fry in hot fat for about 2.5 minutes until grey, not brown.

2. 2

   Serve with brown bread, butter, and lemon.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The thorough good cook (1895) by George Augustus Sala, page 100. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Whitebait. Strew some flour on a cloth, and nothing else. Eggs are vanity. Take the " bait " out of the water with your 166 THE THOBOUGn GOOD COOK. hands and drain tlieni. Never mind linoferinQr them. When well drained, roll them on the floured cloth, of Avhich take lip the corners successively, and shake your fish as though they were so many tiny Sancho Panzas that were being tossed in a blanket. Shake them again over a sieve, to relieve them of the superfluous flour. Put them in a wire basket and dip into a frying-kettle full of very hot fat. Let them remain two minutes on the fire. Then give the pan a shake, and let it cook for another half minute, and so on. At the end of two and a half minutes the " bait " ouoht to be done. They must he greij, not brown, wJien they come to table. Of course, towards August, when the " bait " run large, they will take a little longer time to fry. You may crisp them before the fire before serving, but don't let them o^et too brittle. Broken whitebait might just as well be so nuicli sawdust. Sprinkle lightly with salt ; pe23per, not too higl

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