The Lemon Fool

Okay, I have always loved whitebait, especially my mum who was a regular in our local village pub/hotel.

Served in a basket and piping hot. 1970 - 2022.

Last time I visited my mum, we went to a pub/restaurant.

The whitebait were all covered with some kind of batter/breadcrumbs. Not sure.

I thought this British obsession with covering all seafood with breadcrumbs/batter, died out many years ago, when they discovered that there was life beyond Dover.

Was this just a silly mistake, or are all whitebait now being covered with breadcrumbs?

Don't they realise how disgusting they taste??

PS Rant over.


Steve

Bought in frozen

A lot of technology has gone into processed fish these days, try scraping off the breadcrumbs and you will often find not much else left

Shrinkflation is everywhere

stevensfo wrote:The whitebait were all covered with some kind of batter/breadcrumbs. Not sure.

Head off, gutted? I've seen that somewhere.

kempiejon wrote:

stevensfo wrote:The whitebait were all covered with some kind of batter/breadcrumbs. Not sure.

Head off, gutted? I've seen that somewhere.

I don't think so. Though the idea appeals to my sense of humour. Somewhere a person is carefully gutting and beheading a small whitebait, dreaming of retirement while the pile next to him never goes down.

Partly my fault for not asking first, but I never thought for a second that the whitebait would be covered in something.

Maybe they weren't real whitebait at all, but some kind of new,improved fish substitute, carefully molded into whitebait shape and lovingly garnished with extra monosodium glutamate.

Steve

stevensfo wrote:

kempiejon wrote:Head off, gutted? I've seen that somewhere.

I don't think so. Though the idea appeals to my sense of humour. Somewhere a person is carefully gutting and beheading a small whitebait, dreaming of retirement while the pile next to him never goes down.

Partly my fault for not asking first, but I never thought for a second that the whitebait would be covered in something.

Maybe they weren't real whitebait at all, but some kind of new,improved fish substitute, carefully molded into whitebait shape and lovingly garnished with extra monosodium glutamate.

Steve

I've had them in a light tempura batter before - but dressed and in breadcrumbs?! Mental

Basically this would be just like eating fish flavoured fried breadcrumbs! I may have eaten this in the late 70s but clearly my mind has tried to blank out any memory of it.

Whitebait fried in a very light batter with salt and a slice of lemon though is delicious.

Frito misto shows other cultures have the same idea though.

Its not unusual lets say.

But yes, some do thankfully still serve whitebait uncoated in anything but a little flour pre frying
CF
https://www.thespruceeats.com/classic-f ... li-1300842
and
https://foodandtravel.com/food/recipes/ ... nd-allioli


As suggested above, I suspect the breadcrumbed servings in restaurants are from bought in frozen provision
eg https://bradleysfish.com/product/blanchebait

and lets not even start on "scampi" and what they does or doesnt mean or consists of

stevensfo wrote:Okay, I have always loved whitebait, especially my mum who was a regular in our local village pub/hotel.
The whitebait were all covered with some kind of batter/breadcrumbs.

Could be a way of accommodating the squeamish who would not like to know that fish have heads and tails.

V8

redsturgeon wrote:Basically this would be just like eating fish flavoured fried breadcrumbs! I may have eaten this in the late 70s but clearly my mind has tried to blank out any memory of it.

Whitebait fried in a very light batter with salt and a slice of lemon though is delicious.

Frito misto shows other cultures have the same idea though.

Frito misto shows other cultures have the same idea though.

Yes, this is common in Italy. I try to avoid it these days. It's mainly calamari (squid) with other seafood. Nothing special.

Whenever possible, go for the octopus salad! In Italian it's called Polpo.

Years ago, we went to Mykonos for a wedding anniversary and after a few days, I was having warm octopus salad as a starter all the time. So good! I had to add it to my list of favourite salads: Octopus, Caesar, Greek.

Steve

PS I agree that whitebait has to have something added, usually flour sprinkled over them to stop them sticking.

I saw them in the special freezer next to the fish counter in Morrisons today - just raw frozen untouched little fish. I say a little, on the large size compared to what I would expect to see served, they must shrink a bit on cooking or they've mislabelled the sprats.

You should have asked for the whitebait to be filleted first...

88V8 wrote:

stevensfo wrote:Okay, I have always loved whitebait, especially my mum who was a regular in our local village pub/hotel.
The whitebait were all covered with some kind of batter/breadcrumbs.

Could be a way of accommodating the squeamish who would not like to know that fish have heads and tails.

V8

And alimentary canals partly filled with fish poo, I'd imagine.

stewamax wrote:You should have asked for the whitebait to be filleted first...

As we're a bit off topic I had a filleting experience, the fella at the fish counter, where they offer to prepare your fish for you, said he couldn't fillet herring, they were too small and they'd be mangled. Laziness or lack of skill? I took them home, it wasn't that hard. I made rollmops.

stewamax wrote:You should have asked for the whitebait to be filleted first...

I have filleted fresh anchovies, which are a similar size, no?

No breadcrumbs though.

kempiejon wrote:

stewamax wrote:You should have asked for the whitebait to be filleted first...

As we're a bit off topic I had a filleting experience, the fella at the fish counter, where they offer to prepare your fish for you, said he couldn't fillet herring, they were too small and they'd be mangled. Laziness or lack of skill? I took them home, it wasn't that hard. I made rollmops.

Perhaps legal issues? Filleting a herring is bound to leave one or two of those little bones. Customer chokes, sues for selling filleted fish that turned out to be unsafe.

On a related note, a book :
https://www.routledge.com/The-Story-of- ... 0367683122

which in turn inspired this tale of making garum, where you cut up sardines so that they get digested by their own gut enzymes :
https://twitter.com/lostsupper/status/1 ... 9042514094

Hallucigenia wrote:which in turn inspired this tale of making garum, where you cut up sardines so that they get digested by their own gut enzymes :
https://twitter.com/lostsupper/status/1 ... 9042514094

That was an interesting distraction. I've tried making my own beer and wine, pickles, vinegar and kimchi but fermented fish guts...

UncleEbenezer wrote:

kempiejon wrote:
As we're a bit off topic I had a filleting experience, the fella at the fish counter, where they offer to prepare your fish for you, said he couldn't fillet herring, they were too small and they'd be mangled. Laziness or lack of skill? I took them home, it wasn't that hard. I made rollmops.

Perhaps legal issues? Filleting a herring is bound to leave one or two of those little bones. Customer chokes, sues for selling filleted fish that turned out to be unsafe.

well somebody somewhere is filleting them. Those herring dont just turn themselves into rollmops after all.