Fried Fish, Jewish Fashion
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Cut halibut into one piece and place it in a dish.
Cover the top with coarse sea salt and add water without covering the fish. Let it sit for one hour.
Remove the fish, dry it, cut out the bone and fins, and slice it into half-inch thick pieces.
Batter and fry
In a frying pan, heat the fat over medium heat.
Mix flour with water to form a smooth batter. Dip the fish pieces in the batter until well coated.
Fry the fish in the hot fat until golden brown, turning them as needed.
Remove the fish with a slotted spoon, let it drain, and serve with salt and lemon or your favorite sauce.
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
- Halibut
- Firm white fish that holds together in pieces and turns flaky when fried.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fish and draws out moisture during the one-hour rest.
- Flour
- Forms a thin coating that browns in the hot fat and crisps the outside.
- Fat, lard, or dripping
- Conducts heat for frying and browns the coating, adding richness and flavor.
The step that matters
Drying the fish before battering. Surface moisture makes the batter slide off and steams the coating, so it fries soggy instead of crisp. Patting the pieces dry lets the flour adhere and brown evenly in the hot fat.
“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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