The Tricks to Know Before Making Fish and Chips

Kemp Minifie



Fish and chips
Fish and chips

When it comes to frying anything in a batter, I'm crazy about a beer batter, which in its simplest form is all-purpose flour and beer in roughly equal quantities (depending on how you measure your flour, you may need a bit more liquid to get to a pancake batter-like consistency). It's what I use on squash blossoms and they fry up super-crisp every time.

But I was curious to see how other cooks and chefs do it. On Epicurious.com, Bon Appétit has a recent recipe that uses a mixture of beer and club soda in the batter, but the recipe also includes baking powder as well as baking soda and malt vinegar (the baking soda and vinegar add extra bubbles beyond the baking powder). The flour+ baking powder+ salt combo mimics self-rising flour. I'd had a good experience with fried chicken coated in self-rising flour, so that was definitely worth a try.

When in doubt, at least about fish, I turn to Fish Without A Doubt by Rick Moonen, the chef/owner of RM Seafood in Las Vegas and Roy Finamore, author, editor, photography stylist, and an all-around outstanding cook. One whole chapter in the book is devoted to frying. For their "Fish Fingers at Home," which the authors say is what you get when you order fish and chips, they use self-rising cake flour, seltzer or club soda, and an egg.

I asked Finamore about the cake flour and egg. He told me that the cake flour made a more delicate coating, and that he and Moonen felt that self-rising cake flour was more readily available than regular self-rising flour. As for the egg, I've found that in beer or seltzer batters its addition makes the coating more tender, and Finamore agreed. For @Raechef2 I was aiming for super-crisp, not tender, so no egg.

For my fried fish test at home, I tried:

All-purpose flour and beer in equal quantities (a Gourmet magazine recipe)

Self-rising cake flour and beer in equal quantities

All-purpose flour with chemical leaveners, beer and seltzer, along with a little vinegar (a Bon Appétit recipe)

Which version had the crunch I was aiming for? The simplest and easiest: all-purpose flour and beer. What really impressed me was that the coating retained its crispness while the other pieces of fish were frying. And this was not the outcome I expected. The fish that looked the most appetizing to me was the Bon Appétit version, because it colored beautifully, but the coating didn't stay as crisp for me as the plain beer batter one. (Full disclosure: Although I worked in the Gourmet magazine test kitchen for many years, I felt I remained impartial during the testing because I really expected the self-rising flour to produce a better result.) Here are some tips to help you reach fried-fish perfection:

Choose your equipment: An electric deep fryer makes frying so much easier, but if you don't have one (I don't), a deep heavy pot will work just fine. You'll definitely need a slotted spoon or wire-mesh spider to remove the fish from the oil, and a cooling rack set over a rimmed baking sheet for draining the fish once it's fried. A few long bamboo skewers are also handy (see the tip under "coating the fish" below).

Oil depth: If you are using an electric deep fryer, which is recommended by Moonen and Finamore, follow the manufacturer's instructions. If you don't have one, Both Bon Appetit and Moonen and Finamore use enough oil in a large heavy pot to measure a depth of 3 inches, but Moonen and Finamore add an important caveat: The pot should be deep enough so that "it's never more than half-filled with oil." You can fry in 2 inches of oil, but you'll notice that the heat varies more. At a depth of 3 inches, the oil temperature doesn't drop so precipitously when the fish is added.

Select your fish: The traditional fish used in fish and chips is Atlantic cod, but Pacific cod will also work. Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch to see which fishing methods for cod get a "best" or "good alternative" rating. Haddock and pollack are similar in texture to cod, but again, you may want to see how they fare on the Seafood Watch, too. Moonen and Finamore suggest Hawaiian grouper, halibut, or mahi mahi.

Cutting the fish: Moonen and Finamore recommend cutting the fish into 3- by 1- by 1-inch strips. Bon Appetit's recipe has you cut the fish lengthwise into "long, 1 1/2-inch wide strips." I found the long strips to be ungainly to deal with and preferred the shorter 3-inch strips. Begin by cutting the cod fillet lengthwise, separating the thicker side from the thinner side, then cut those pieces into strips.

Coating the fish: Start heating the oil before mixing the batter and coating the fish. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then dredge the fish pieces in all-purpose flour, making sure to knock off the excess so that each piece has a barely visible coating of flour. When the oil is at 375°F, put several pieces in the batter to coat them and slide them, one at a time, into the oil. Do not crowd the pan.

Moonen and Finamore have a great trick: They use a bamboo skewer to spear a piece of fish in the batter and use it to lift up the fish to let the excess drip off. With the fish still on the skewer, lower it about halfway into the oil and let it sizzle for 3 seconds, then give the skewer a little shake to set the fish free in the oil. It's a nifty way to keep your hands from getting gummed up with batter!

Frying the fish: It takes about 4 minutes to fry 1-inch thick pieces of fish. Sometimes my pieces of fish remained submerged in the oil and other times I had to flip them halfway through cooking so that they turned an even golden brown color all over.

Draining the fish: This is probably the most important tip of all! Don't drain your fish on paper towels! It will get soggy. Instead, have a cooling rack set over a rimmed baking sheet ready next to the pot and transfer the fried fish to the rack. You can keep the fried fish warm on the rack/baking sheet set-up in a preheated 250° F. oven, but I didn't feel the need to do that.

And in case you thought I'd forgotten about the chips:

Fry the chips before the fish: If you want to make the traditional British-style chips or fries at home, too, follow this recipe and keep the fries warm in a preheated 250° F. oven while you're frying the fish. For me, the fish entailed enough frying (my whole apartment now smells like a fast food restaurant), so I 'd rather make things easy on myself and heat up some frozen fries. Because proper English chips and French fries require two trips through the fryer, once on low heat and again at a higher heat, if I chose to make fries from scratch, I'd go for these straw potatoes, which only require one short dip in the hot fat.


See more from Epicurious:
Indulgent, Delicious Breakfasts
Your New Favorite Chicken Recipe
Quick and Easy Dinners
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