Fish batter

[Rik vonTrense]

I use just self raisin flour and cold water salt and a dash of pepper with a little drop of lemon juice. Not too thick though,

In the blender for a good whizz and then in the fridge for an hour before use.

gives a nice light crispy batter,

[Wohoki]

Sorry if I started a barney, I just wanted to post a batter that you can prepare after you've put the oil on to heat.

One point I would make is that the use of carbonated water is just a substitute for elbow-grease. The best way of introducing air into a batter is a balloon whisk and five minutes beating.

[Fallow Buck]

No Barney Wohoki,

In fact your batter, (or most anyones home recipie) will be better than most of what you get in the chippies. After all when you are frying a few thousand peices per week a vcolume pre made batter is perfect for the job in hand but won't come close to the batter you could make for 3-4 portions at home.


FB

[pokerpete]

Sorry if I started a barney, I just wanted to post a batter that you can prepare after you've put the oil on to heat.

One point I would make is that the use of carbonated water is just a substitute for elbow-grease. The best way of introducing air into a batter is a balloon whisk and five minutes beating.

Just a little point here. Most people tend to fry in oil, I never did, I used solid vegetable fat with a 1lb block of beef dripping in each pan.
I found it much easier to clean the range down, much better than oil which tends to glue everything up.
And for the chips only Maris Piper potatoes were used.

[jenny_haddow]

That's a good point Pete. Years ago it was all solid fat used, not oil. It gives a different result.

Perhaps you should experiment with the fat not just the batter Oddley.

Cheers

Jen

[dougal]

... Most people tend to fry in oil, I never did, I used solid vegetable fat with a 1lb block of beef dripping in each pan.
I found it much easier to clean the range down, much better than oil which tends to glue everything up. ...

Veg oil/veg fat. Palm and coconut are solid at room temperature, most other veg fats are liquid at room temp and so tend to be called "oils".
Veg oil can be treated to 'harden' it, (hydrogenating it), "saturating" some of the carbon/carbon double bonds in its structure and making the product much more like the saturated fats found in animal fats. This is usually done specifically to make it solid at room temperature.
HOWEVER the process of hydogenation typically does this in a very specific way, creating so-called "trans fats". These would seem to be the absolute least healthy fats to be eating - worse than standard animal saturated fats.

I didn't know, but am happy to accept from Pete, that hydrogenation also "de-gummed" the oil. Those gums are the reason (unfavourable tax treatment and cost of conversion apart) that Veg Oil isn't really a very good thing for your diesel engine. Proper Biodiesel is however positively good for diesels (recent ones at least - old ones may have some natural rubber in contact with fuel, and biodiesel causes the rubber to swell, which isn't good).
If I'm eating it, I'd put up with cleaning up the gum rather than choose to deliberately eat trans-fats.

To my mind, some beef dripping definitely makes for better tasting chips, though I'm not so sure about it being of benefit to the fish...
Belgian frites were (supposedly) traditionally fried in horse fat, for the flavour. But I understand that these days almost all Belgian chippies or friteurs just use oil.

And we haven't covered the influence of oil temperature... yet!
One of the things that can distinguish a chip-shop fish from a home-fried one would be the large volume of hot oil that the shop would use.
The result of that is that putting in a fish or two doesn't chill the oil nearly as much as it does in a home fryer.
Consequently, its better to home-fry the fish singly, (unless you have a really large and powerful fryer) and, as I previously suggested, give them time to drain and crisp in the oven while the rest are being done.

[Fallow Buck]

We used Groundnut early on then moved to Veg oil when price became prohibitive.

I think the use of beef dripping was (and is ) far more popular up north than down here.

Pete, did you guys skin your fish too? (the white fish like cod and haddock) We didn't but it was something I heard some northern shops did.

Regards,
FB

[pokerpete]

We used Groundnut early on then moved to Veg oil when price became prohibitive.

I think the use of beef dripping was (and is ) far more popular up north than down here.

Pete, did you guys skin your fish too? (the white fish like cod and haddock) We didn't but it was something I heard some northern shops did.

Regards,
FB

All the chippies in the North skin the fish, customers won't have it any other way. I am sure your business would fail if you fried 'skin on'.
I haven't a clue how this all began. As it goes I don't mind the fish either way, in fact I've never come across a chippy down South that fries 'skin off'.
Beef dripping seems still seems to be a Yorkshire thing, but I always put a 1lb block in the fat. It doesn't affect the taste of the fish.
BTW it is always a good idea to alternate frying fish, and then chips in the range pans.

[Fallow Buck]

Pete very true,

The first thing we taught new fish fryers was to look after their oil, and the best way to do that is to use the chips to clean it as you go.

Incedentally we used (upto the recent sale of the shops) a carbon filter pump to clean the ioil once the suppliers started charging for the disposal of the used oil. The carbon filters made the oil practically new again. Given that the shops were quite busy we needed to top up daily so the oil was never more that 2/3 days old at most.

I never though I would be sat in an office job getting nostalgic for a chippie and kebab shop!!!


FB

[pokerpete]

Pete very true,

The first thing we taught new fish fryers was to look after their oil, and the best way to do that is to use the chips to clean it as you go.

Incedentally we used (upto the recent sale of the shops) a carbon filter pump to clean the ioil once the suppliers started charging for the disposal of the used oil. The carbon filters made the oil practically new again. Given that the shops were quite busy we needed to top up daily so the oil was never more that 2/3 days old at most.

I never though I would be sat in an office job getting nostalgic for a chippie and kebab shop!!!


FB

By using solid vegetable fat, and with proper management I never changed the fat in over 2 years. Of course it was topped up daily.
Another thing that was off limits was frying anything that had been crumb coated.

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Oddley,

Saw this packet mix in Morrisons for 41pence. Ingredients wheat flour and 3 unpronounceable raising agents. Could be the chip shop taste you are looking for.

Cheers

Jen

http://www.britsuperstore.com/acatalog/Goldenfry.html

[Oddley]

Thanks for the thought jenny, but you know how it is, I get as much pleasure finding out how it's done as eating the end result.

I also find that sometimes when I find a commercial product that I really like they take it off the market. So back to the deep fryer for me...

[Rik vonTrense]

My daughter always used those packet mixes and the kids seem to like them.

[pokerpete]

Thanks for the thought jenny, but you know how it is, I get as much pleasure finding out how it's done as eating the end result.

I also find that sometimes when I find a commercial product that I really like they take it off the market. So back to the deep fryer for me...

I've been doing a pit of a straw poll for you regarding the making up of batter in a commercial environment. It seems that everone uses a ready made up powder mix to simplify matters.
I wish I could explain a foolproof way of achieving the correct viscosity, but I can't.

[Oddley]

Thanks pokerpete, I think I know, in chefy terms it's called a ribbon stage where the batter runs from the whisk forming a string or ribbon like run off.

I have made plenty of batter but still can't get the rise quite right. The quest for perfection is sometimes a long one.