Breaded fingers

[B Edulis]

So I've got a little deep fryer that I like to get out every now and then, but the breading procedure has me stumped.

You dip the item in flour (or not), then in egg, then in breading. But my fingers get the same treatment. After about 3 items I've got these crumb lollypop fingers. I've tried utensils, chop stix, to no avail. Anybody have a foolproof method?

[Liza]

FINALLY! I can help!

The trick is: use one hand for dry, one hand for wet. Requires ambidexterity, and sometimes tying of colored string to each hand, but maybe that's just me. At least this is the way I start out, and then get gloopy anyway, as I believe gloopy hands are part of the fun. Again, that could be just me.  

[Wilfrid]

An extension of the same problem - which I share - is that after I've dipped a few egg covered things into the breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs themselves start to get eggy and difficult to work with.  Sometimes I have to fetch a fresh batch.  I'm sure Emeril never has this issue.  What's going wrong?

[Liza]

Emeril has extra bowls of breadcrumbs and extra bowls of eggs!

[Malawry]

Sometimes I use a fork to remove clumps of eggy crumbs aside. I also find that shaking the plate every so often helps keep fresh crumbs available for breading.

I kinda like the effect of breaded fingers, personally. But I'm weird that way. After reading a James Beard essay about cooking with your hands I've experimented quite a bit with it and it really is a different way of getting to know your food. Plus it's kid-like fun!

[foodie52]

How about putting the breading in a deep cake pan, putting the eggy fingers in the pan and then shaking the pan? Kind of like panning for gold! You know what I mean, right? Then you can fish them out with tongs.

[Andyzipp]

Growing up cooking, my little brother's favorite meals were usually the fried thimbles that were left over from chicken fried steaks and fried chicken.

We never tested his IQ.

[Jinmyo]

Liza's patented one hand dry and one hand wet method always works for me. If I'm doing many dozens of things though, it still gets gloppy. So I just have a bowl of acidulated water at the side to plunge the offending digits into.

[Holly Moore]

You can always hire an apprentice.

My first job in a restaurant kitchen was a drive-in run by a Cornell alumni, before my freshman year at the hotel school (Any New Jerseyites remember Sip And Sup, the old Alderny Dairy, at Rte 10 and Rte 202 in Whippany?).

Every day I had to peel, devein and bread 50 lbs of shrimp and peel, slice and bread a large bag of onions.

[Basildog]

Having breaded 20 portions of fish cakes today....heres how we do it at our place.Flour all the products, and lay on a cling filmed tray. Then egg and LET IT DRAIN IN YOU FINGERS FOR A FEW SECONDS  before rolling it a big tray of breadcrumbs.Use the one hand for egging and the other for breading .Shaking the tray is best. Btw the fish cakes were salmon and smoked salmon served with local leaves and Herb Mayo and they were very nice if  i do say so myself!

[Jinmyo]

Basildog, I'll have a platter. What's with?

[Basildog]

?????????? whats with??????? explain yourself

[SteveZapata]

Hi, my name is Steve.  I've got a good one for you:  Where would we be without salt?  Just something to think about.  Go ahead, think about it.  Scary, huh.

[Jinmyo]

Basildog, what else do you recommend I have with your fish cakes?

[B Edulis]

Thanx all for the tips! Now I have an excuse to make some deep-fried things this weekend.

Did anyone see the bit in the NY Times about the fish and chips cook's tradition of deep-frying everything? The current fave was deep-fried twinkie. Don't think I'll go there. (The article has passed into premium land, but if you gotta read it, search on "twinkie")

[Wilfrid]

Hmmm.  I'll give the wet and dry hand thing a go, but I am having trouble visualising it.  I mean, when i attempt to bread the eggy thing with my dry hand, my dry hand will immediately become wet, no?  OK, I'll have to try it and see.

And I'll remember Jinmyo's excellent advice about plunging my hand into a bowl of acid (that was it, wasn't it?).

[Hopleaf]

Wilfrid, your dry hand is used just to put stuff into and out of the flour, and into and out of the bread.  You're using your wet hand really only for the egg in between the flour and bread.  So: DRY into flour and to coat with flour, DRY from flour to the egg (without getting it wet!), WET to coat with egg and transfer to bread crumbs (without getting it bready!) and DRY to coat with bread crumbs and into your frying pan.  Does that help?

[Jinmyo]

And I'll remember Jinmyo's excellent advice about plunging my hand into a bowl of acid (that was it, wasn't it?).

Not quite so butch. Just some water with vinegar or lemon will do.