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📝 Description
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76
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🥘 Ingredients
A little flour, hot lard, seasoning of salt.
👨🍳 Method
This fish should be put into iced water as soon as bought, unless they are cooked immediately. Drain them from the water in a colander, and have ready a nice clean dry cloth, over which put 2 good handfuls of flour. Toss in the whitebait, shake them lightly in the cloth, and put them in a wicker sieve to take away the superfluous flour. Throw them into a pan of boiling lard, very few at a time, and let them fry till of a whitey-brown colour. Directly they are done, they must he taken out, and laid before the fire for a minute or two on a sieve reversed, covered with blotting-paper to absorb the fat. Dish them on a hot napkin, arrange the fish very high in the centre, and sprinkle a little salt over the whole.
📜 From Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). Public domain.
⭐ Reader Reviews
Honest opinions from readers who have explored this book.
I tried dressing whitebait this week, a delightful nod to simpler times when seafood was fresh from the shore. I found the technique of tossing the fish in flour within a clean cloth to be an ingenious way to ensure each tiny morsel was evenly coated, a trick I'll be stealing for other small bites. The resulting crispy exterior gave way to a delicate, almost ethereal flesh, a true delight. This recipe is perfect for the seafood lover who appreciates the simple pleasures in life. The process is straightforward enough for a weeknight cook, yet the results are elegant enough for a dinner party. I served mine with a squeeze of lemon, a modern twist that paired beautifully with the old-fashioned preparation. The next time you find yourself with a handful of fresh whitebait, do give this a try—your taste buds will thank you.
