Fry society

BATTERS

Batters are flavoured, edible food packaging. They protect fish against the fierce heat of boiling oil. Sealed inside their flour and water cocoons, fillets of cod, haddock or plaice steam and retain their succulence.

The key word for batter is "crisp". Its texture can be light or soft, bubbly or more risen, thicker or thinner.

Scottish preferences veer towards a thin coating with little lift. The north of England prefers a darker batter with more crunch. Around London, the taste is for a shorter, softer texture.

Ceserani & Kinton's textbook Practical Cookery supplies a time-honoured standard recipe: 1 pint water, 1lb flour, 1oz yeast, salt. However, the batter will vary according to the protein level (strength) and moisture content of the flour. A bread flour produces a batter with more bite; a cake flour a much shorter product.

Baking powder or other raising agents provide an alternative to yeast in many recipes (1 pint water, 1lb flour, 1oz baking powder, salt). The activity of the powder/agents is affected by the water temperature and the time the batter stands before being used.

Resting a batter for at least 30 minutes after mixing is essential as it allows the starch granules to soften.

Milk makes for a more tender crust; beer for a crackly one. In French cuisine, chefs fold stiffly beaten egg white into a batter before use. This gives a more open, less brittle texture, suitable for goujons and goujonettes (strips of coated fish). If left to stand too long the whites collapse and spoil the batter.

Italians use a similar mixture in some types of fritto misto.

In the Japanese tempura, kuzu (an arrowroot-like starch) is mixed with the flour to improve crispness. The Chinese add maize flour for the same purpose.

Soya flour is oil-rich so it shortens the batter and the fish fries more quickly.

In Anton‹n Caràme's 200-year-old recipe (12oz flour, water, 2oz melted butter, 2 spoons eau-de-vie, 2 stiff egg whites), the butter shortens the batter, the alcohol strengthens the flour and whites improve the lightness.

Specialist manufacturers can formulate any style of batter. Some are willing to customise recipes, though minimum orders are likely to be a tonne, equivalent to a little under a half-hundredweight sack per week over a year.

How and when to batter fish

Do it just prior to frying. The fish can be fresh or frozen (provided it hasn't been coated in glaze or frosting). If the surface is dry it won't need to be dusted in flour. If it is wet, it is better to pass it through ground rice. However, this must also be done just before cooking to avoid a layer of wet, uncooked starch around the fish.

As plaice is usually fried with the skin on and it is harder for a batter mix to adhere to it, first dust in ground rice, rice cones or sifted flour.

Batter mixes - further information

Goldensheaf 0117 947 9534

Middleton Food Products 01902 608122

JA Centre Wholesale Division(tempura mixes) 0181-803 8942

OILS

The most popular frying medium for the fish and chip trade is palm oil. In the north of England, beef dripping, giving a darker-toned fry, takes precedence. Most caterers choose a vegetable oil, typically one refined from rapeseed.

The latter exists in at least three qualities: a straight oil, a hydrogenated oil and a hydrogenated oil with silicone added as an anti-foaming agent to extend its life.

There are two ways of wasting oil. Fry fish or chips at too low a temperature and they soak it up like blotting paper. At least half the calories (and up to two-thirds of them) in a piece of battered fish can come from the oil. Correct frying will reduce the amount of fat absorbed by 20%.

The optimum temperature for deep-frying is 180-205ºC. Most refined oils have a smoke point - when the oil starts breaking down - of about 220ºC. The smoke point falls as the oil ages.

As soon as the fish or chips come into contact with the oil, its temperature falls. The larger the piece of fish in relation to the volume of oil, the more the temperature drops, and the more oil the food absorbs.

Burnt bits of batter and "nubbins", the shrivelled slivers of potato all reduce the life of the oil. Efficient cleaning of equipment, filtering and topping up slows the breakdown, but no frying medium has an infinite life-span.

A useful rule of thumb for good fish frying practice is: if the fish doesn't float, either the oil isn't hot enough or the batter is too heavy.

What type of oils?

Dedicated frying oils are deodorised during refining, but some chefs feel this may give a slight aftertaste. Groundnut (expensive) and sunflower oils are virtually flavourless. Refined olive oil, with a distinctive tang, is the choice for those specialising in Mediterranean-style cooking.

FISH

What to use?

Fresh or frozen cod, haddock, plaice and whiting. Possibly dogfish and skate.

Fresh fish

Defining the freshness of a raw fillet is harder than making a judgement from a whole fish. There are some pointers:

Flesh: At its freshest, the flesh of most white fish is bluish and translucent. This turns waxy as it loses condition. Any signs of discolouration suggest it has been filleted near or after its sell-by date.

TEXTURE: should be firm and elastic to the touch. The softer it becomes, the older it is. If you can rub the scales off the skin, you have a dodgy product.

Odour: Ideally a fresh seaweedy smell. This disappears and the fillet becomes odourless. Thereafter, it's downhill all the way. The early signs are musty or milky smells which degenerate into versions of nasty.

Frozen fish

Fish is either frozen on board ship in the fishing grounds or landed and then frozen.

Frozen fish may be coated in ice glazes containing water. The most reliable frozen fish processors use the Torry Score, originating from Aberdeen's Torry research station, as a basis for grading. Retailers use this as a specification when buying frozen fish. Caterers wanting a quality product should insist on a minimum 71/2 out of 10, as a guarantee of freshness.

In blind tastings, cod processed at sea performed well when measured against fresh wet fish. Chefs should, however, watch out for double-frozen fish. These may have been blast-frozen whole at sea, defrosted, processed and refrozen.

Fish should not be held for more than a year after freezing. Ice glazes will, to some extent, protect fillets, but no more than 5% is necessary and the product should be sold net of glaze. Fish can be fried without defrosting, but batter tends to slip off glazed fish or may leave an unpleasant starchy layer.

Fish prices

Wet fish in Glasgow tends to be at the top of the tree. The South-west and Midlands may offer better value. Between now and next year the price of small plaice fillets is likely to range from 230p per lb to 320p per lb. Cod fillets have ranged from 145p to 240p per lb and haddock from 180p to 265p per lb over the past year.

Prices will increase or decrease according to the degree of processing: skin off, all bones removed, degree of trim. The cost per portion between a skin-on cod fillet and a skinless boneless one may vary by up to 10p.