Fried Parsley
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash, pick, and thoroughly dry full sprigs of parsley.
Fry
Bring the lard to a boil and test it to ensure it's ready.
Place the parsley in a frying basket and plunge it into the hot lard for about 1 minute until crisp but not blackened.
Remove the basket, drain the parsley, and set it before the fire or in a warm oven for a few minutes to dry.
Serve
Serve the fried parsley in a large bunch at the center of a dish with croquettes, lobster chops, or fried smelts.
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
- Parsley
- Becomes crisp when fried, providing a brittle texture and fresh herbal flavor as the garnish.
- Lard or sweet drippings
- Conducts heat quickly to crisp the parsley and carries flavor into its surface.
The step that matters
Plunging the parsley into hot lard. Parsley must be fully dry before frying, because water turns to steam and spatters violently in hot fat. Moisture left on the leaves also slows crisping and can make the oil cool sharply. Hot fat crisps the leaves within about a minute; longer frying scorches them, so timing matters.
“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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