Overflowing with beer or just seeking the best fried fish? Let’s make this beer battered fish for the crunchiest whiff!

Batter is a flour mixture with liquid, like in this case beer and other ingredients such as salt, oil, egg, sugar and sometimes leavening, like in the case of crumpet.

The word itself comes from the French ‘battre’ simply meaning ‘to beat’. The luckiest of us don’t have to beat the batter vigorously to get it together anymore, since some clever engineers invented the electric whisk, but beer batter doesn’t really require a great effort, anyway.

We can simply use our favorite fork, reserved for cooking and get on with the whisking just fine.

Although it may sound wild to suggest that beer battered fish is a recent invention as people has been brewing and drinking beer since at least the 6^th millennium BC, there are no records on any carving or on papyrus scroll about people dipping their fish in beer batter.

What we know about battered fish is that immigrant Spanish and Portuguese Jews, fleeing religious persecution, brought the way of preparing fish with them to England around the 17^th century.

Fish, fried for Friday Shabbat dinner, was allowed to eat on the following day. Coincidentally, Christians also liked to eat fish or Fridays, mainly because lent was held and no other animal flesh or eggs were allowed.

Fried fish quickly become popular, especially among the not so well to do population which we can still read about in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

A couple of years later in the 18^th century fried fish penetrated into London’s culinary scene so widely that even Thomas Jefferson had a run with it when he visited the British capital.

The question is what would have happened to the fried fish if another invention, the French fries (aka chips in Britain) invented by Belgians, weren’t found its way next to it.

It took another century and another Jew to make the cuisine fusion happen. In 1860, French fries known locally as chip potato was added to the fried fish and became an instant hit that spread around the country like the Great fire in London.

What really cemented fish and chips in the British national conscience and ensured its spread around the world, were the world wars. The dish was exempt from rationing during second world war and nothing stopped them selling as many as they wanted as long as they had the ingredients to do so.

Luckily, nowadays we don’t have to struggle with ingredients shortages, save on occasions when we feel like toilet paper will save the world, and we can get even more creative with what we immerse into the deep fryer.

The basic batter is just flour and water of course but that doesn’t make beer battered fish at all, so we obviously need to swap water with some sort of beer. Brits like to make it with ale but there is no hard-set rule about what beer we should pick for our fish to snug into.

Our favorite beer or the one at hand would probably do it just fine. Similarly, there isn’t any limitations about the fish we can coat either. Britain’s favorites are cod and haddock but in reality, anything goes that looks similar and doesn’t require much fiddling with the fishbones.

In the States, fish and chips doesn’t really evokes such emotions as on the other side of the pond nor reaches such popularity, hence we couldn’t care less about what kind of fish is under the golden-brown crust as long as there aren’t fishbones to fight with.

In the Southeast, catfish frequently turns up on the menu while on the coast, local fish such as cod, haddock, halibut, flounder, tilapia or even salmon is frequently used.

Apart from the choice of fish and liquid we use, we can also have some variety in the selection of flours. Although, traditionally only plain white flour is used, in the South of the US, cornmeal is also included to make the batter.

Even though we don’t want to walk around the streets, selling our fish and chips from trays hanging from our necks, we may want the coat of our fried fish to be crisp or more importantly stay crisp as long as possible.

If we maintain right temperature, leave enough space between the filets, and let the oil drip off on a cooling rack, crispiness is guaranteed. Luckily, there are hacks to ensure success for the less traditionally minded too, like sneaking in some rice flour for extra crunchiness and longevity while adding bicarbonate of soda at the right time, makes an airier, fluffier coating.

Choose the traditional way or dive deep into kitchen science, the end results will be equally satisfying and certainly less crucifying than the long road beer battered fish traveled. Try not to forget the French fries though!

Ingredients

¾ cup / 100g All purpose flour
¼ cup / 50g Rice flour
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
1 cup / 250ml Beer

How to make Beer battered fish

Mix all purpose flour, rice flour, salt and beer together.
Dip the fish into the batter so it covers all sides. If the fish was kept in water, let it drip excess water before dipping.
Heat oil to medium high and place the coated fish in.
Deep fry until the bottom gets a slight golden brown color, for about 3 mins. Flip it over and fry the other side until both sides gets a uniformly golden brown color, for about 2 mins.
Let the excess oil drip. Plate and serve!
Although the batter can be used for a couple of days, probably we shouldn’t. Add some flour or breadcrumbs to thicken it up a bit.
Spoon the batter into the hot oil and deep fry both sides until golden, for about 6 minutes, flipping midway through.

Enjoy!

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Beer Battered Fish Recipe

Overflowing with beer or just seeking the best fried fish? Let's make this beer battered fish for the crunchiest whiff!

Course Main Course, Meal

Cuisine Sugar free recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 8

Ingredients

Instructions

Mix all purpose flour, rice flour, salt and beer together.
Dip the fish into the batter so it covers all sides. If the fish was kept in water, let it drip excess water before dipping.
Heat oil to medium high and place the coated fish in.
Deep fry until the bottom gets a slight golden brown color, for about 3 mins. Flip it over and fry the other side until both sides gets a uniformly golden brown color, for about 2 mins.
Let the excess oil drip. Plate and serve!
Although the batter can be used for a couple of days, probably we shouldn't. Add some flour or breadcrumbs to thicken it up a bit.
Spoon the batter into the hot oil and deep fry both sides until golden, for about 6 minutes, flipping midway through.