Frying

Good frying is in fact boiling in fat, and the frying-pan should be perfectly flat with a thick bottom, 12 inches long, 9 inches broad, with perpendicular sides and must be half-filled with fat. Before using make sure that the pan is quite clean, rub a little fat over it and then make it warm and wipe it out with a clean cloth.—William Kitchiner.

1. Never use any oil, butter, lard, or dripping but what is clean, fresh, and free from salt. Anything dirty spoils the look; anything bad-tasted or stale spoils the flavour, and salt prevents its browning.
2. Dripping, if clean and fresh is almost as good as anything: it may be easily clarified.
3. The fat must be quite hot: that is to say it must have done hissing; if the fat is not hot enough, you cannot fry fish either a good colour, or firm and crisp. To be quite certain, throw a little bit of bread into the pan; if it fries crisp the fat is ready; if it burns the bread it is too hot.
4. [Remember that each cutlet or piece of fish, etc., you put in the piping-hot fat cools it, and pause a moment between each piece to allow the fat time to recover its proper heat. After the fried food is taken out of the pan it should be well drained on a piece of paper or, better still, soft muslin, and kept crisp in the oven ready for dishing up.—Ed
5. Oatmeal is a very satisfactory, and an extremely economical, substitute for bread-crumbs.
6. The fat can be used three or four times if it has not burned; but it must be poured through a fine hair sieve into a clean basin; if you do not find it enough, simply add each time a little more to it. Fat in which fish has been fried must not be used for another purpose.