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Fish and Chips


jayt90

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How to make the best Fish and Chips at home comes up from time to time, but I would like to see a full discussion.

Marlene had a nice pictorial, and would have done it perfectly if the fish had not stuck.

She used fresh halibut in beer batter.

What kind of potatoes are good. I like Russets for texture, but they don't have a lot of flavour.

Fresh versus frozen fish?

Soft versus firm flesh fish?

I have used canola or soy oil. Should this be upgraded?

And finally, is there a preferred temperature range for frying?

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Fish and Chips:

FRESH cod and I mean fresh, not the dried up crap that most stores pass as fresh fish. Oily(mackeral) or soft fish(flounder) should not be used.

You can make a batter or just coat with Wondra. Seasonings are up to you.

ANY type of russet will do.

Canola oil is fine.

375F with a thermometer to monitor temp.

Lastly, good malt vinegar.-Dick

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Beef fat is the best without a doubt - it creates a wonderful crispness and flavour that no other fat can produce.

For perfect chips...tried and tested

Use floury spuds such as King Edwards or Maris Piper. Cut them nice and thick - no place for skinny chips. Blanch them in hot fat at 150°C for about five mins, until soft but still very pale. Drain them and raise the temperature of the fat to 185°C. Return the chips to the fat and fry for a further four mins or so, until thay have a beautiful golden brown colour.

As for the fish... sadly I have little expertise to offer here, other than to recommend cod, haddock or hake.

Finally, the vinegar.... for me, the best vinegar is the malt vinegar from a jar of pickled onions.

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Now we're getting somewhere! But I have several questions:

(1) Should I reduce my own beef fat from scraps? I have heard that back fat from the kidney is best, but don't have a supply. Is lard from pork scraps a substitute?

(2) I need more recommendations for batter. I like a crisp outer batter with no holes or gaps.

(3) Many well known fish and chip shops use frozen halibut or haddock. One of our esteemed contributors and critics, Jamie Mau, says that deep frozen halibut shoud be as good as fresh if it is thawed slowly over ice. Any suggestions?

(4) I don't know King Edwards or Maris Piper potatoes, but Russets are ubiquitous in North America, and they are large and starchy. I'll bet they are similar.

(5) any suggestions for how long to fry the fish to get a moist yet hot serving?

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I'd love a good source of beef lard in Ontario! I just took off the most lovely layer of fat from my beef stock. Could I render that? But it still wouldn't be enough.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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You all may laugh at me, but everybody will become believers if you try this at home. Take your fish, season it, dip it in cornstarch. Pat off all excess and then dip in your favorite beer batter. Then, roll it in slightly crushed Rice Crispies. Deep fry until G.B.&D and you have the most crisp, flaky, unbelievable fish fillet. MMMMM....

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You all may laugh at me, but everybody will become believers if you try this at home.  Take your fish, season it, dip it in cornstarch.  Pat off all excess and then dip in your favorite beer batter.  Then, roll it in slightly crushed Rice Crispies.  Deep fry until G.B.&D and you have the most crisp, flaky, unbelievable fish fillet.  MMMMM....

Blasphemy :cool:

It sounds delicious but it ain't Fish n Chips. :wink:

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My Canadian sister in law and her family were here (Melbourne, Australia) and they raved on about how good the fish and chips was, I haven't yet tasted the Canadian counterpart ( apart from the poutine). I would use a fresh fillet of fish, generally speaking not too thick, white flesh ( don't ask, it just seems to work better ) the way I make my beer batter, plain ( all-purpose) flour in a deep bowl , a pinch of salt, and thin it down it cold beer ( icy, think tempura) till you get a light crepe mixture , dust the fillet with flour , dip in batter, and deep fried till golden, not too long , I find when the oil started to spilt ( when the fish releases liquid, the fish is cooked) , 2 things though the oil has to be hot , at least 180 C ( the oil has to mantain that temperature ) I have to agree fat is better, I use canola oil because I have to watch my health, and if you don't have a powerful burner, don't crowd the pot, if you have to do it in batches, warm up your oven , but it won't be as good though. In Victoria, Australia. we also slice some thick slices of potato and dip n batter and deep fry, we call it potato cake :raz:

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But I have several questions:

(1) Should I reduce my own beef fat from scraps?  I have heard that back fat from the kidney is best, but don't have a supply. Is lard from pork scraps a substitute?

I'm anything but expert on fish and chips, but I do know a little about the type of beef fat you're talking about. That kidney fat is called suet, and if you can find a real butcher, he can either make or get suet for you. You may have to buy the whole thing, which will be 10 lbs or more, but it can be rendered and will keep forever frozen. And here in the DC area, it's dirt cheap. I got a whole suet from Union Meat Co in the Eastern Market for 70 cents a pound :biggrin:, which presumably included a markup for the vendor! Best deal in town.

I'll let others give a definitive answer, but I suspect that lard would not be an acceptable substitute.

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne." John Maynard Keynes

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Lard wouldn't give the right flavour or texture.

In the UK, the beef fat we use is known as beef dripping. It used to be the collected drippings from a beef roast. Bread and dripping used to be a real treat - roast beef fat and juices on bread. For frying, the fat would have been separated from the juices. Today, I guess that beef dripping is simply rendered beef fat.

There is a massive move away from using beef dripping in the uk for fish and chips, for health reasons, but if you are going to boil potatoes and fish in fat, you might as well do it properly!!

Dripping gives a much better flavour

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In Victoria, Australia. we also slice some thick slices of potato and dip n batter and deep fry, we call it potato cake :raz:

aka 'potato scallops'. Done well, they're so good. Also if you don't eat fish they make a fair substitute for the genuine article.

Fish shops here seem to use a variety of different white-fleshed fishes for making battered fish fillets -- presumably whatever's biting (and cheap).

Tied House in Mountain View, California do a smoked salmon fish and chips with hot-smoked salmon. It's oily but really good. You could try making it if you wanted to get experimental.

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