Name: Fried Whitebait
Yield: Serves 6–8 (as a starter)
Ingredients: 2 lemons, cut into wedges, to serve; cayenne pepper, to taste; 55 g/2 oz/½ cup flour; 450 g/1 lb whitebait (or sprats); 500 ml/18 fl oz/generous 2 cups fat (preferably lard or beef dripping), for frying (you may need more, depending on the fryer); salt, to taste; 6–8 slices of thickly buttered brown bread, to serve

Preparation info

Serves
6–8
(as a starter)

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

How to Cook The Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe

By Annie Gray and Andrew Hann

Published 2020

About

There was a veritable craze for whitebait in Victorian England. Politicians and other (male) society figures would pour out of London and head down the Thames to Deptford and Blackwall, where local taverns served hot fried whitebait, eaten whole with vinegar, to the eager hordes. Debate raged as to what these tiny, tasty fish actually were, and it was not until the 20th century that they were identified as the spawn of a wide variety of other fish, predominantly herrings. The diner got, on