Fried Sprats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Half fill a saucepan with frying fat and heat it until boiling.
Quickly wash the sprats and drain them on a sieve.
Place a cup of flour in a cloth, add a few sprats at a time, and shake to coat them in flour.
Fry and serve
Carefully place a few floured sprats into a frying basket and lower them into the hot fat.
Fry for less than two minutes until lightly browned, then dry on paper and serve hot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fresh sprats
- Small, thin fish that cook through very quickly, so their flesh stays tender while the outside crisps.
- Flour
- Forms a thin coating that browns and crisps in the hot fat, sealing in moisture.
- Frying fat
- Transfers heat quickly to the fish, cooking them fast and browning the coating.
The step that matters
Lowering the floured sprats into the hot fat. Adding too many at once drops the fat's temperature, so the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Adding a few at a time keeps the fat hot and the fish crisp.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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