Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — Frying Fish. [ARTICLE]

Frying Fish.

The theory I have suggested is that melted fat cooks by convection of heat, just as water does in the so-called boiling of meat. If that is correct, it is evident that the fish should be completely immersed in a bath of melted fat, and that the turning over demanded by the greased plate theory is unnecessary. Well-educated cooks understand this, and use a deeper vessel than our common frying-pan, charge this with a quantity of fat sufficient to cover the fish, which is simply laid upon a wire support, or frying-basket, and left in the hot fat until the browning of its surface, or of the flour or bread crumbs with which it is coated indicates the sufficiency of the cookery. At first sight this appears extravagant, as compared with the practice of greasing the bottom of the pan with a little dab of fat; but any house .v ife who will apply to the frying of sprats, herrings,, etc., the method of inductive research, described by Lord Bacon, may prove the contrary. This method, to which we are indebted for all the triumphs of modern science, is nothing more or less than the systematic application of common-sense and definite measurement to practical questions. In this case it may be applied simply frying a weighed quantity of fat used as a baththen weighing the fat that remains and subtracting the latter weight from the first, to determine the quantity consumed. If the frying be properly performed, and this quantity compared with that which is consumed by the method of merely greasing the pan bottom, the bath frying will be proved to be the more economical, as well as the more efficient.— W. M. Williams-, in the Popular Science Monthly. .