Fish batter

[Big Guy]

Here is my recipe.

Puffy fish Batter


1 cup flour
1 egg
� tsp. baking soda
� tsp. salt
Club soda for thinning.

Mix flour, egg, salt and club soda to the desired consistency. Heat your oil. Don�t add the baking soda until just before you dip the fish in the batter.

[pokerpete]

... give it a stir with your balloon whisk, coat the fish in flour, shake off the excess. Dip in the batter, and fry at 375F. The absolute key to the whole issue is the viscosity of the batter. ...

Pete, just a quickie "for the avoidance of uncertainty" - before dredging the fish in flour, I'd expect it ti be fairly well wetted.
Would it have been held after filleting and trimming, in the fridge, in water or brine or just under cover?

It is indeed wet, the idea of dredging it in flour is to make a key for the batter to cling to.
After filleting, trimming and cutting to size I put the fish back into the fridge to keep cool until it was needed for use, and used those white blown polystyrene boxes. At the last fry of the day I put the lid on the box(es) and kissed it goodnight.

[David.]

Oddley,

The beer is added to put air bubbles into the batter mix for a nice light, crisp batter. You can use any carbonated beverage instead of beer.


2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 (12-ounce) can of really cold soda water
Flour, for dredging

In mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and egg. Pour in the cold soda water and whisk to a smooth batter. Dredge the fish pieces in the flour and then dip them into the batter, letting the excess drip off.

Deep fry and enjoy.


David.

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Oddley,

Here's an interesting angle in your quest for 'kosher' batter. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,877008,00.html

Cheers

Jen

Another possibility is that some batter was put aside to create a raising agent for the next batch. I believe this was done with Yorkshire puddings, some of the batter was kept for the next week's Sunday roast.

[Oddley]

Whoo! with all these recipes I could do serious damage to the fish stocks in the north sea...

I think what I'm going to have to do is, make up all these recipes and try them out on fried vegetables. it would be wasteful and expensive to do it on fish. Thanks for all the reply's.

Jenny that was an interesting read.

[Wohoki]

I really like tempura batter, particularly on extra fresh fish and seafood.

This one is from Shizuo Tsuji's "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art", which is a great book even if the title is a complete lie

2 egg yolk
2 cups (I know, bloody cups, but what can you do if half the world doesn't understand scales, or pints/liters) of ice water
2 cups sieved flour

the batter is supposed to be lumpy, and it has to be made freshly just before cooking. Just stir the ingredients together with chopsticks when the oil has heated to temperature, dip the fish and fry. The finish should be crisp and lace, with some of the fish stil showing. You can make it thicker by ommiting some of the water.

[pokerpete]

I really like tempura batter, particularly on extra fresh fish and seafood.

This one is from Shizuo Tsuji's "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art", which is a great book even if the title is a complete lie

2 egg yolk
2 cups (I know, bloody cups, but what can you do if half the world doesn't understand scales, or pints/liters) of ice water
2 cups sieved flour

the batter is supposed to be lumpy, and it has to be made freshly just before cooking. Just stir the ingredients together with chopsticks when the oil has heated to temperature, dip the fish and fry. The finish should be crisp and lace, with some of the fish stil showing. You can make it thicker by ommiting some of the water.

I too like tempura batter, and it's OK to mess about with it at home, but you wouldn't get much joy banging out fried fish in a chippy for hours on end with all the cold soda water and stone cold mixture on the range.
Who wants some mushy peas, or did I do that once?

[Wohoki]

& you wouldn't sell a lot traditionally battered British fish in a Japanese restaurant.

Just offering a quick batter that requires no prep and produces a tasty, crisp product. (I think that chip shops would be better if they offered fresh, tasty food that didn't require twenty minutes under a heat lamp to crisp up.)

[pokerpete]

& you wouldn't sell a lot traditionally battered British fish in a Japanese restaurant.

Just offering a quick batter that requires no prep and produces a tasty, crisp product.

Damn and blast. I often wondered why no Japanese came into the shop, and I thought it was because the shop was on the biggest council estate in Preston. Never mind, the Chinese menu was popular on Fri and Sat night.
That's near enough to Japan.
The other thing was that my meat processing machinery business had to be looked after as well.
Whoever I left in charge could measure out a gallon of water, and weigh some ready made batter mix, then chuck it in the Hobart 120 mixer on the balloon whisk. Hence achieving consistency and no cock-ups.

[saucisson]

I think Oddley just wants to try out as many different batter recipes as possible that don't have beer in, so I don't think any of the recipes so far should be put down because they wouldn't be practical to make up a gallon at a time in a Preston Chip Shop

Dave

[Big Guy]

Here is some thing a little different and tasty too.

Potato Fried Fish


2 Lbs. Fish filets
Salt and pepper
Oil for deep-frying
1 egg, beaten
1 cup mashed potato flakes
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix

Put soup in a food processor and blend until smooth, or grind with a mortor and pestle. Add potato and mix. Heat oil to medium high. Salt and pepper filets dredge in potato mix. Dip in the egg then roll in the potato mix again. Fry in oil until golden brown, drain on paper towel. Serve.

[pokerpete]

I think Oddley just wants to try out as many different batter recipes as possible that don't have beer in, so I don't think any of the recipes so far should be put down because they wouldn't be practical to make up a gallon at a time in a Preston Chip Shop

Dave

I gathered that after the thread started, but the original ask was for a chip shop batter.

[saucisson]

Sorry Pokerpete, you are completely right, the original question was for authentic chip shop batter, so I apologise for my post

Dave

[jenny_haddow]

So back to Oddley's original post and his search for that long remembered fish shop batter.
I can remember preferring the batter to everything else!
Pokerpete has highlighted what Oddley isn't looking for with his account of leaving the hired help to mix up the pre prepared mix, probably the reason I haven't bought fish and chips for years.
Before the onset of pre-mixes I would imagine that most chippies made up a batter with flour, water and salt, achieved the right consistency, let it stand for a while, and fried fast and hot.
My ex mother in law's family were chippies in Sheffield before and during the war, and this was how she did her batter. Mind you, she was the worst cook I ever met and almost killed my dad with her liver and onions once!
Flour, water and salt are the primary ingredients of batter, it must have been that simple combination that we remember from the past when expectations were not so high.
Just a thought,

Jen

[Fallow Buck]

Hi all,

Having come from a Chippie background also, I agree with nigh on everything Poker-Pete says. HTat's basically the way we did it too. There are a couple of other things to keep in mind too though as the batter is only one part of the dish.

When you cut your fish put it into a bowl of cold salted water. Say about a third to half of a cup of salt in the sink. Leave the fish peices in it for about 15-20mins and this will season the fish in a far nicer way than adding salt at the table or in the batter.

The other thing was that we used rice cones (coarse rice flour and some dry batter powder as the dusting on the fish. That if you make sure to tap off all the excess then you won't get the stodgy layer. Just leaving the fish on a rack in the frige for 20mins will leave it dry enough to flour by the way.

When you batter the fish, really work it in the batter for a few seconds rather than just a dunk and drop. that way it will have an even thin coating.

And most importantly Pete hit the nail on the head, the oil has to be VERY hot. the biggest mistake friers make is not cooking at a high enough temp.

When you look at the fish when cooking it will need about 7-8mins in the oil and will come to the surfaceabout half way though. If you lift the fish out you will see tiny white holes in the batter with steam coming out. If you leave it too long the white pinpricks will go and the inside will become greasy.

Lastly just to clarify, the hotplate in a chippy doesn't crisp the fish up. In fact it does just the opposite because of the steam in the fish.

good luck with the experiments.

FB