Any hints on beer-batter cod? Types of beer, temperature, should the fish be cold or

M

marilynfl

Moderator
room temperature when dipped? When fried?

I totally suck at all things fried, so I picked up a "FRY BABY"--dumbed-down to the point that it doesn't even have an adjustable temperature range. You turn it on, it gets to 375 and stays there.

(Yep, there goes all those hours spend on Fokker-Planck homework assignments.)

Oh, what kind of oil? And if you say CANOLA, please tell me a brand that doesn't taste fishy.

I am DESPERATE for a good fried piece of fish--which is weird because I complain constantly about our local restaurants frying everything. But then that's because they fry EVERYTHING...and so (fill in the blank) ends up tasting like EVERYTHING.

 
Only things I can suggest is that your batter be thinner rather than thicker. . .

and be absolutely sure your oil it up to temp AND don't try to fry too many pieces at a time. I have had good success in using cold fish, as it doesn't seem to overcook too soon. It is probably good to have the fish in even thickness, and the thickness should not be *too* thick.

And, WOman!!!, that Fokker-Plank homework thing--I consider myself as somewhat geeky, but that is waaaaay outa my range. I had to look it up and, GOLLY, I learned about something new--just barely!

I was able to read through the first paragraph about the Fokker-Plank equation on Wikipedia, but the number stuff below, it lost me in the supermarket-- it's all greek to me (ha, ha!).

Yer killin' me MarilynFL!!! smileys/smile.gif

 
When we previewed my son's college, we sat in on a biology class lecture. The Professor was writing

an equation that described the filtering of the blood through the human kidney. Somehow, and God only knows how, a human kidney employs MATH in order to make pee.

The equation stretched across TWO sliding chalk boards and was two rows tall.

After the class was over, I looked at my son with a scared look on my face, evidently. He commented that I was a bit pale. I told him that equation was frightening to me.

"Oh that. Naw, not a problem. I was able to follow it. Had most of that in my junior year."

Yipes. I felt so ignorant. But not enough to actually pick up a math refresher course. Nope.

As for the fish, I use mahi-mahi or cod. It is usually cold, and I do the flour-egg wash-panko drill and it comes out great.

Your oil is about the right temperature, but like mistral said, don't cut the fish too thick (or wide) or it will brown too fast on the outside and still be raw in the middle. The fillets I use are rarely thicker than 3/4" or so.

I like Mexican beer in beer batter. Bohemia is my favorite, as it has a bit more flavor than most Mexican beers.

Thin the beer batter until most of it runs off the fish when you lift it out of the batter.

Have fun with your fryer!

 
Good description of how the beer batter's consistency should be. . .

I think everything can be described with math from what I have heard and seen! Liquid can be pumped and flows, and pumping and flowing can be described mathematically, so there is the kidney function on the board . . . in numbers.

Best beer batters I've ever had:
1. On house-made onion rings at an "Irish" pub out towards Camarillo CA; they made it with Guinness, if memory serves. Crispy, crackly, light and delish.
2. On what I think was tilapia fillets, at a gastro-pub type place in Bullhead City, Az. Again, light, crispy, crackly and the fish was nicely done. Very good, and I wished I had more fish.

I am glad you mentioned the thickness of the fish. I just could not remember the number, but I knew they shouldn't be real thick.

My favorite crispy batter is from an old, self-published Chinese restaurant cookbook I picked up years ago in a thrift store. It was in a recipe for sweet-and-sour pork (*very* good recipe). Flour, cornstarch, water, a little salt, made very thin, dip the chunks of pork and fry quickly. Toss the fried pieces in the sauce, serve fast. Best sweet-n-sour pork I ever had, and the stuff was made at home. I love it when recipes turn out just as written (of course I need to *follow* the recipes just as written!).

 
Thanks m&M! I had the cod all ready, but a bad night's sleep (or more accurately, lack of sleep)

meant I crashed when I got home and the cod is still sitting in the refrigerator.

Might try it tonight. Thanks again for all the good advice.

 
mistral, the *Fokker* reference was simply a Google search for *thermistor* & heat transfer

equations. I picked Fokker-Planck because Planck's Constant is used frequently in engineering, but mostly I just like the sound of Fokker-Planck.

My math and engineering days are over. I couldn't do that type of intricate math any more if someone put a gun to my head. Cripes, there are times when I have problems downscaling a recipe.

 
Once upon a time in college I got as far as the first, introductory, quarte of Calculus. . .

for years I had hated ANY sort of math, but in college, just before I graduated, I decided to give this a try and I passed, with a C, but I passed--and I generally understood it, whooo-hoo!

I remember using some of that math *once* to solve a puzzle for fun: I read over the puzzle and realized, wow, that can be solved with simultaneous equations! This was a real "lightbulb" moment (LED moment now?) for me, the person that always had problems doing those stupid word problems.

I think I just needed to get over the hate of doing math. Sometimes learning just takes a while. . . a long while.

And I think I like the sound of Fokker-Planck too. Maybe I will just get a bumper sticke that just says "Fokker-Planck". Of course, most people will think it is some sort of candidate, unless they are in mathemematics . . .I think.

 
...even more impressive is that *simultaneous equation* now made sense.

That same thing happened to me when I made the original Dyslexic Chocolate Sauce and it crystalized after I reheated it too many times.

I was wondering and wondering and SUDDENLY this phrase popped into my head:

"Oh...I've added too much sugar and the solution is super-saturated!"

What? Who said that?

I haven't used the term *super-saturated* since Chemistry III and then I was parroting words from the assignment. I learned to do the math by rote.

Like a monkey typing Shakespeare.

 
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