To Dress Whitebait

The Book of Household Management · Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) · 1861
Source
The Book of Household Management
Time
Cook: 3 min Total: 3 min
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (3)
Instructions (6)
  1. This fish should be put into iced water as soon as bought, unless they are cooked immediately.
  2. Drain them from the water in a colander, and have ready a nice clean dry cloth, over which put 2 good handfuls of flour.
  3. Toss in the whitebait, shake them lightly in the cloth, and put them in a wicker sieve to take away the superfluous flour.
  4. Throw them into a pan of boiling lard, very few at a time, and let them fry till of a whitey-brown colour.
  5. 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.
  6. Dish them on a hot napkin, arrange the fish very high in the centre, and sprinkle a little salt over the whole.
Original Text
TO DRESS WHITEBAIT. 348. INGREDIENTS.—A little flour, hot lard, seasoning of salt. Mode.—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. Time.—3 minutes. _Seasonable _from April to August. [Illustration: WHITEBAIT.] WHITEBAIT.—This highly-esteemed little fish appears in innumerable multitudes in the river Thames, near Greenwich and Blackwall, during the month of July, when it forms, served with lemon and brown bread and butter, a tempting dish to vast numbers of Londoners, who flock to the various taverns of these places, in order to gratify their appetites. The fish has been supposed be the fry of the shad, the sprat, the smelt, or the bleak. Mr. Yarrell, however, maintains that it is a species in itself, distinct from every other fish. When fried with flour, it is esteemed a great delicacy. The ministers of the Crown have had a custom, for many years, of having a "whitebait dinner" just before the close of the session. It is invariably the precursor of the prorogation of Parliament, and the repast is provided by the proprietor of the "Trafalgar," Greenwich.
Notes
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