One of the characteristics of good fish and chips is batter that sticks to the fish like a glove!! So many people ask our staff what's the secret? How do we get it right over and over again? It's not as hard as you think but it may require better equipment.
Here is what I mean by better equipment. When we first started our journey to open up our first location we decided to do trial and error at a co-partners house. We experimented with different fish and different batter recipes. What we had trouble with was having the fish stick on the batter perfectly at the time (latter to learn that commercial equipment helps greatly because of the heat recovery rate, depth of fryer etc...but don't give up because these tips will def help). If we are going to be professionals at fish and chips we better get that part right was our thoughts! But how do we do it? Like anything else it took some time to figure it out and get it perfect (years) but now we are here to share it with you!
First of all you have to make sure that the flour completely covers the fish. If you really don't care it will show with a spotted fish (batter on some areas and not others). We serve thousands of fish per day and everyone of our cooks makes sure the flour completely covers every fish. No matter how busy we are, we are making a name as a professionals, so we better get that part right!
Second of all shake the fish to get excess batter off! This will def give it a more solid stick. The next step is to dip the fish coated with flour in the batter. The batter can not be to thick or to light. This is where the trial and error comes in and maybe the hardest part! We constantly keep an eye on the batter through out the day because as the day goes on (as we dip in hundreds of fish) some of the excess flour is going into the batter mix causing it to thicken up. The solution to that is adding a bit of water to get it to the right consistency throughout the day. However this may not be a problem you face in a home kitchen because you probably wont be making hundreds of fish unless you're super hungry...
Lastly but not the least important is to dip the batter coated fish in the fryer. The right temp is a must. The range def has to be between 350-375. Lower then that and the batter will disperse, and higher then that the batter might stick but it will look like toast rather then fish. Now comes the part where you put the fish in the fryer. If the fish is dropped in the fryer to fast or even just tossed in the fryer the batter will most like disperse or just a little will stick. The secret here is to put in the fish slowly while giving it a little wiggle to get access batter off. This will really give you an amazing coating on the fish!
