# My "Perfect Fish Batter"



## Kayelle (Apr 30, 2011)

I've used dozens of recipes over the years, searching for the "perfect fish batter" for fried fish.  The many variations of "beer batter" always fell short for me (kinda strange taste, but then, I don't like beer).  Actual Tempura batter just didn't have quite the substance I wanted either, although it was closer to what I wanted.  I can't even eat some of the gummy, nasty battered fish I've been served and have made.  This is honestly the best fish I've ever eaten, bar none, and that includes everyplace on the Pacific coast I've paid to eat.  This is light, puffy, delicate and sticks to the fish.  
The fish must be very *cold* and very *dry*.  This will batter about 1 1/3 lbs of fish fillets. It's wonderful for shrimp too.

My Perfect Fish Batter (IMHO) in my humble opinion

3/4 cup AP flour
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. fresh snipped dill (optional)
3/4 cup ICE cold water
juice of half of a *fresh* juicy lemon (about 3 Tbs)

Use a med. bowl, and with a wire whisk, whisk dry ingredients to be sure they are well blended.  Have a large skillet ready with and inch of veg. oil nearly smoking hot.
Squeeze half a juicy lemon into a measuring cup, and fill to the 3/4 line with ICE cold water.  Mix quickly into the dry ingredients, till only small lumps remain.  It does not need to be smooth.  With tongs, drag each piece of fish through the batter till well coated on each side.  Lay the piece in the hot oil, and continue.
*Do not crowd the pieces. *You can do this in batches, keeping cooked fish on a rack in a warm oven.  It will take a very short time, depending on the thickness of the fish.  Do not overcook.  Serve with lemon slices


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## Aunt Bea (Apr 30, 2011)

Kayelle,
What kind of oil do you fry in?


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## Kayelle (Apr 30, 2011)

Aunt Bea said:


> Kayelle,
> What kind of oil do you fry in?



I like peanut oil the best Bea, but often have used just generic Wesson veg. oil.


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## Selkie (Apr 30, 2011)

Got it copied... Thank You!


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## Aunt Bea (Apr 30, 2011)

I am going to give this a try minus the dill.  In addition to the fish I have some  bananas that may fall in.


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## LindaLou (Apr 30, 2011)

Thanks Kayelle!  It sounds great.  I also had the same problem with beer batters until I used "Wondra" and very cold, very dry fish.  My husband is an Englishman so fish and chips along with Sunday Roast and Yorkshire Pudding are important -- LOL!  Gosh, we continue to learn and create.

I grew up in Northern Michigan along Lake Superior (so you see the difference) where the basic fish batter for pan frying fish is 1/2 all-purpose flour -- 1/2 cornmeal plus your basic seasonings.  Don't get me wrong it makes a light - crunchy fish batter and works great.  Actually, some of the best fish I have ever eaten.  I do believe it is due to the very cold water so the fish meat was always so firm.

Sometime just try a couple cups of Wondra with a light beer -- and a pinch of Kosher Salt until it is the thickness of cream.  Refrigerate for 1 hour and then dip that very cold, very dry fish (Cod or Halibut) in and fry.  I think you will be amazed at the difference in the light fluffy batter.


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## Kayelle (Apr 30, 2011)

You're very welcome Selkie. 

Let us know how the bananas turn out Bea.  Yep, dill would be weird with banana. 

I like your batter ideas LindaLou. I *soo*  agree that both the fish and the batter must be ice cold, and the fish very dry. However, the batter I posted shouldn't be refrigerated as it must be used as fast as you can get it mixed, the reason for having the pan ready to go before mixing. I bet you had some really nice lake fish in North Michigan.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Apr 30, 2011)

Kayelle;
If you use equal parts AP flour with cornstarch, and the remaining ingredients that you have, you'd have a dill-infused tempura batter.  As is, I would thing your batter comes out very light.  Good job.

Another trick I've used with fish, and chicken, is to combine 1 cup flour with 1/2 cup farina, then add salt, and pepper. Dip the fish in egg wash, then dredge in the flour/farina mix and pan fry in a couple inches of hot oil.  The farina gives everything a light crunch.

Don't even get me started on usign panko bread crumbs.  But you know the drill; cold-dry fish, flour, egg wash, panko, fry or bake.  Yum.

Do I need to say that you can add shredded coconut to the breadcrumbs? -)>

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## Hoot (Apr 30, 2011)

Gonna try this for sure!  Thanks!!


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## Kayelle (Apr 30, 2011)

Thanks GW. A true tempura batter is too light for my liking however.
I also really enjoy a Panko breading as you described and that's a great idea about the coconut addition.....I'll keep that in mind. I see no reason why coconut couldn't be added, minus the dill, to my recipe.  I bet it would be great with shrimp.  Whatcha think?

You're welcome Hoot.  Hope you like it.


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## spork (Apr 30, 2011)

I copied, and will definitely try, too, Kayelle.
Cod, to start.  Any other fish you recommend?


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## Kayelle (Apr 30, 2011)

spork said:


> I copied, and will definitely try, too, Kayelle.
> Cod, to start.  Any other fish you recommend?[/QUOTE
> 
> Oh I love Cod, Spork!!  Doing it with Orange Roughy tonight. Halibut is my all time favorite, but it's pretty spendy.


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## Bolas De Fraile (May 1, 2011)

Great batter recipe Kay, in north west yorkshire they traditionally fry fish and chips in beef dripping.I dont like it the Tykes have very strange taste the eat cows udder sarnies.


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## Bolas De Fraile (May 1, 2011)

LindaLou said:


> Thanks Kayelle!  It sounds great.  I also had the same problem with beer batters until I used "Wondra" and very cold, very dry fish.  My husband is an Englishman so fish and chips along with Sunday Roast and Yorkshire Pudding are important -- LOL!  Gosh, we continue to learn and create.


Show your husband this pic Lou, it was taken in my Mums favorite chippy


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## Kayelle (Feb 24, 2020)

It's been a very long time since I've fried fish, but this recipe is as good as it always was. 

Thought I'd add this picture from dinner tonight.


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## caseydog (Feb 25, 2020)

Kayelle said:


> spork said:
> 
> 
> > I copied, and will definitely try, too, Kayelle.
> ...


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## Roll_Bones (Feb 25, 2020)

@Kayelle. 
Your batter recipe is very close to the one I use. I do use beer but no lemon in the batter.  Off the top of my head its 3/4 cup AP, 3/4 cup corn starch and around a cup of beer with a pinch of salt and baking powder. 
This batter is very crisp (cornstarch) and works well with butterflied shrimp as well.


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## salt and pepper (Feb 25, 2020)

Thanks, have to try this Kayelle


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Feb 25, 2020)

My perfect fish batter was air.  Let me explain.  I was hingry for fish, but was tired from a long day of work.  I went to the freezer and pulled out a beautiful, wild caught, steelhead fillet.  I then heated my big wok with enough oil to deep fry it.  I took tha fis, still frozen, and gently put it inro the hot oil.  I deep fried it for ten minutes to allow thr fillet to thaw, and cook thrugh.  I took it out of the oil and placed it onto a paper towel covered plate, and salted both sides.  The texture and flavor was amazing.
  The skin was crispy, like a crackling and was grand all by itself, not fishy tasting at all.  The flesh had a very thin crispy surface that just enhanced the moist and firm flesh, with pure trout flavor.  I have eatem lots of fish, dredged in flour, battered, coated, steamrd, poached, tempura, you name it.
  But none were better than the straight,  deep-fried fish, sans coating.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## CWS4322 (Feb 25, 2020)

Kayelle said:


> I've used dozens of recipes over the years, searching for the "perfect fish batter" for fried fish.  The many variations of "beer batter" always fell short for me (kinda strange taste, but then, I don't like beer).  Actual Tempura batter just didn't have quite the substance I wanted either, although it was closer to what I wanted.  I can't even eat some of the gummy, nasty battered fish I've been served and have made.  This is honestly the best fish I've ever eaten, bar none, and that includes everyplace on the Pacific coast I've paid to eat.  This is light, puffy, delicate and sticks to the fish.
> The fish must be very *cold* and very *dry*.  This will batter about 1 1/3 lbs of fish fillets. It's wonderful for shrimp too.
> 
> My Perfect Fish Batter (IMHO) in my humble opinion
> ...


No soda water or beer? Sorry, but, I grew up with the best of the best fish batter and it always included either soda water or beer. And for pan frying, you gotta use 1/2 butter to 1/2 oil. The Lions, Rotary, the local electricity co-op all do fish fries and all their batter recipes include beer or soda water and a bit of corn meal. Most of us who grew up in MN don't need a recipe, we just need fresh fish! Sorry. I am being a snot today. A good friend's son died and my Dad won't pay to have all those bloody slides I had to go through digitized. But my Dad says "I'm loaded. I can pay for anything." Yeah, except my broken heart.

Okay. here's how we do it.

3 trays - pat the fish dry with paper towels.

Tray 1
Flour, corn starch, salt, pepper, dill, smoked paprika

Tray 2
Egg with beer or soda water, lemon juice

Tray 3 
Crushed saltines, cornmeal, dill, grated lemon zest

On the stove

CI with equal parts butter and oil 

Tray 1-Tray 2-Tray 3 back to Tray 2 to Tray 3. Let them sit for 10 minutes. Turn on the stove and heat the butter and oil. Drop the fish in, turn the stove down to medium. Cook for 5-6 minutes, flip, add more oil and butter if needed, cook another 4-5 minutes. Serve with fresh lemon. The fish should be golden brown and flake.


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## GotGarlic (Feb 25, 2020)

CWS4322 said:


> No soda water or beer? Sorry, but, I grew up with the best of the best fish batter and it always included either soda water or beer. And for pan frying, you gotta use 1/2 butter to 1/2 oil. The Lions, Rotary, the local electricity co-op all do fish fries and all their batter recipes include beer or soda water and a bit of corn meal. Most of us who grew up in MN don't need a recipe, we just need fresh fish!



Different people have different ideas of what's "best" - usually, it's whatever they grew up with. A New York pizza slice vs. Chicago deep dish, anyone?  Maybe you could post your own ingredients and method for Minnesota-style fried fish,


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## CWS4322 (Feb 25, 2020)

GotGarlic said:


> Different people have different ideas of what's "best" - usually, it's whatever they grew up with. A New York pizza slice vs. Chicago deep dish, anyone?  Maybe you could post your own ingredients and method for Minnesota-style fried fish,


Did. I am in a snit today and have apologized. Never needed a recipe for fish 'cuz we learned how to cook that at my Grandma's knee at the cabin. Can't get my head around that someone needs a recipe for THAT.


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## Cooking Goddess (Feb 25, 2020)

*CW*, some of us like recipes in the same way we like a handrail while going up and down steps: It's there, you don't really need it, but it's within reach if you do. I know so many recipes by heart, but I still like having a paper or online version at hand just in case I have a brain burp.

Different strokes for different folks.


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## CWS4322 (Feb 25, 2020)

Cooking Goddess said:


> *CW*, some of us like recipes in the same way we like a handrail while going up and down steps: It's there, you don't really need it, but it's within reach if you do. I know so many recipes by heart, but I still like having a paper or online version at hand just in case I have a brain burp.
> 
> Different strokes for different folks.


I am like my Mom and her Mom before her--we never used recipes except when we baked, and even then, we were a little flighty. BUT I did have my Grandma's handwritten recipe book scanned recently and sent the pdfs to my cousins. I just couldn't send the "smell" of Grandma's kitchen (yes, the recipe book still smells like Grandma's kitchen). Many of the recipes are just the ingredients, no instructions. I have given Grandma's mink coat to a cousin's daughter to be made into teddy bears--it still carries the scent of Chanel #5--the perfume Grandma always wore.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Feb 25, 2020)

CWS4322 said:


> Did. I am in a snit today and have apologized. Never needed a recipe for fish 'cuz we learned how to cook that at my Grandma's knee at the cabin. Can't get my head around that someone needs a recipe for THAT.



On my Dad's side of the family, fresh brookies were a cause for a celebration.  Grandpa, Dad, Uncle Earl, and Uncle Carl, and if they were visiting from below the bridge, the Millers all hit the trout steams of the U.P.  I joned in at about age 8.  My family knew how to catch fish,  They limited out every time.  There were favorite streams.  We spend the night before watering down the lawn so we could pick night crawlers.
52se, and cleaned.  It was then fried in about two inches of hot oil, after being dredged in flour.  The skin was crispy, the flour coating golden, and the fish flesh was amazing.  I was tauht how to remove the backbone frm the fish after it was cooked n one piece, taking most oog the bones with it.  The tail was crispy and salty, like a potato chip.;  The fish was salted afer it was removed from the pan and ;laced on paper towels.  rarely did anything else accompany the ffried fish.  And as I said, our fish fries were a tie of celebration, with fish stories, and general The Elk's Club, the Moose Lodge, the American Legion, and hte VFW all ha Friday fish fries, each with it's own beer batter.  I always found the batter heavy, not greasy, but taking away the natural goodness of the fish.  The Wigaam down in Barbeau served all the perch you could  eat for $1.25.  They coated their fish with a simple seasned flour coatin, and it too was wonderful.  For me, batter is for onion rings, and fried mushrooms, not or fish.  At most, other than simple ap flour, maybe I'll dredge in flour, egg wash, then Drake's seasoned coating.  I want to taste ther fish, not the coating.  If I want a thick, bread-like fred something, I'll make fry bread, or yeast  raosed doughnuts, or even hush puppies.  

Like GG said, it's what you grew  up with.  I live at the junction of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron.  I have eaten pike, walleye, ,muskie, perch, jumbo perch, ell pout, lake trout, steelhead, rainbow trout, whitefish,Lake herrig, king salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, brrok trout, and rainbow trout, even bullheads, rock bass, and smallmouth bass.  Though it's consideered a delciacy i Europe, we don't eat carp, and only smoke sucker.  We are spoiled with very high quality fresh water fish here.  I lived in San Diego for 0 years, ad so am familiar with salt water fish as well..  I know what fish tastes like.  I've been enjoying it all of my life.  Og them all, I love brook trout best, wild, and with a belly full of scuds.  The meat is full of beta caratine, giving it a beautiful orange color, so  of flavor, ad rich in nutrition.  Farmed fish can't compare.  And i don't want to step on any toes here, but Mississippi catfish just taste like mud to me.

CWS, Minnesota is the lane of a thousand lakes.  But in reality, Michigan has more fresh water lakes, streams, and rivers than any other place on Earth. My family has a rich heritage as sport fishermen, and they were good at it.  Please don't assume that your way is the best way.  It's the best for you.  The simple flour dredging is best for me.  And smelt, well there are a buch of diffenent ways to cook those beauties, dredged in flour, or cornmeal, brines in a brwon sugar, salt brine, then smoked, baked, grilled, and so on.

If you've never thrown up a primitive camp on a soggy island, caught fesh rock bass, and Perch, cleaned and scaled them, and cooked them up over an open cooking fire with some sliced potatoes, then you are missing one of the great culinary treats this land has to offer.  Not flour is requjired.  No batter is required.  You just need a good, heavy cast iron pan, a fire, and some butter and salt, oh, and if you can bring a bit of ketchup, that's a bonus.  keep whatever you're drinking in a mesh bag, int the ice-cold river, soda for me thanks, and you have a teenage boy's dream camp.  

What make a fish fry great is not only the delicious fish, but the family, or your best friend who is sharing it with you.

Another amazing way to prepare fish is to clean it, and put it into a folil pouch with spud slices, sliced carrot, onion, and butter.  seal and cook it in the campfire for 15 minutes.  Be careful not to scorch it, so you have to build your fire correctly.
Now Earnest Hemingway would have argues with the lot of us.  Hes favorite brook trout recipe was blue trout.  You will have to look up the technique and recipe.  I don't have that memorized.  And his favorite place to fish, the Fox River of U.P. Michigan.

Oh, and did I say htat my youngest son is an avid stream fisherman?  All my kids love to go fishing, just like their old man.  I just wish I had the strenght and endurance to fight the tangles, the thistles, and branches, the stinging nettle, and the muck and swamps alongside the streams like I used to be able to.  But they bring me some fresh brookies every  now and again.
o for everyone who has a favorite ba tter, coating, or cooking echnique for fish, your's is the best one there is, for you, and maybe it's even good enough to share with us here on DC.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North


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## Kayelle (Feb 25, 2020)

> No soda water or beer? Sorry, but, I grew up with the best of the best  fish batter and it always included either soda water or beer. And for  pan frying, you gotta use 1/2 butter to 1/2 oil. The Lions, Rotary, the  local electricity co-op all do fish fries and all their batter recipes  include beer or soda water and a bit of corn meal. Most of us who grew  up in MN don't need a recipe, we just need fresh fish! Sorry. I am being  a snot today.





> Did. I am in a snit today and have  apologized. Never needed a recipe for fish 'cuz we learned how to cook  that at my Grandma's knee at the cabin. Can't get my head around that  someone needs a recipe for THAT.


CWS, once again, your insulting tone and comments directed to me on my recipe can't be undone by a lame apology for "being in a snit". Your reasons for your nasty mood has nothing to do with me. If you don't like a recipe, I'd suggest you do what reasonable members of DC do, and just scroll on by. By the way, not you or anyone else is the supreme authority on how to cook anything.


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## Just Cooking (Feb 26, 2020)

Cooking Goddess said:


> *CW*, *some of us like recipes in the same way we like a handrail while going up and down steps: It's there, you don't really need it, but it's within reach if you do.* I know so many recipes by heart, but I still like having a paper or online version at hand just in case I have a brain burp.
> 
> Different strokes for different folks.



+37

I find that I like to have a recipe handy IF I need it... Old age can be hell but, it beats the alternative.. With luck, all of you, will live to have this problem.. 

As an aside... I find it best to not post when feeling off.. 

Ross


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## PiperH (Mar 27, 2020)

I like your recipe, Kayelle. I copied it to a file and I'll try it soon.

Thank you.


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