Whitebait, Dressed

Ingredients

• the whitebait
• flour
• a little salt
• garnish with parsley
• quarters of lemon
• brown bread and butter

Method

1. 1

   Coat whitebait in flour, fry in boiling beef-fat until crisp.

2. 2

   Drain, sprinkle with salt, garnish with parsley, and serve hot with lemon and brown bread.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 2259. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

brown bread and butter. It requires no sauce. The fry of various species of fish are treated as whitebait, and if not too large are passable. WHI ( 1112 ) WHI Whitebait,Devilled. — Fiy the whitebait in the usual way till it is crisp. Lift the basket out of the fat, shake the fish, and sprinkle over it a little salt and black pepper. Plunge the bask(;t again into the fat, and let it remain for a few seconds. Drain the fish, and tui-n it upon a napkin. If a red devil is required, sprinlcle a little cayenne upon the fish (in addi- tion to the black pepper already used) after it is taken out of the fat for the last time. It is a common practice with cooks to take whitebait which has been fried and served in the ordinary way, to .sprinkle black pepper upon it, to plunge it into the hot fat, and, after allowing it to remain for a short time to drain it, sprinkle it again with pepper, and serve a second time as deviUed whitebait. Whitebait, Dressed.— Take the white- bait out of the water with the fingers, di-ain them, and throw them into a cloth upon which flour has been strewn. Shake them in the cloth to make the flour adhere to them, then toss them in a large wide sieve to free them from the superfluous flour. If the fish stick together, separate them, but they will not do this if they are fresh. Have ready plenty of boiling beef-fat (this is much better than lard, which is usually recommended), put the white- bait a few at a time into a wire basket, plunge in the boiling fat, and leave them for about three minutes. At the end of that time shake them to kcej) them from sticlcing together, and when they are slightly crisp without being browned they are done enough. Drain them from the fat while they are still in the basket, sprinkle a little salt upon them, pile them on a napkin, garnish with parsley, and serve very hot. Send quarters of lemon and brown broad and butter to table with them. Time to fry the whitebait

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