Thread: Frying Fish - How to

I have never had that happen with fish. Is it possible the fish is too damp when you coat it causing the coating to steam off and not stick

I never add flour with cornmeal. But, that being said ... at what temp do you have the oil when you introduce the fish into it ??

We fry a lot of fish at our Fling's & I believe the standard temp is ~350deg in our deep fryers. I fry fish at home in an iron skillet, and don't introduce the fish until the oil is at least 325deg. In both instances, Peanut Oil is being used. We use it because it has a high smoke point (450deg), doesn't impart any added taste to what you're frying and doesn't retain any flavor of what's been fried in it (so you can cook other things in it & not impart a fish taste to those things).

Some of the coating will always come off during frying, even if you use a batter instead of a dry mix. Movement of the fillets is the reason, whether it's from the tumbling in the oil & bumping against the other fillets, or when dipping them out, or when lifting the basket out .... and especially if the basket is shaken. The most common reason for the coating to come off during frying is too low of an oil temp. That's one reason I don't use flour. Flour and oil are 2/3's of the mixture that makes "gravy"

Thanks for the input. I use peanut oil and fry at 375 degrees.
Never drop one in until the oil is at 375 and I dry the fish
well before coating. On the next batch I'll drop the flour
and lower the temp. I am guilty of shaking the basket
so I'll stop that too. Thanks for the help.

What Jack said - your fish is too damp. Let it air dry for a short while before doing your coating. Then, let it sit again on a wire rack to "set up" before frying.

Thanks DoyleAlley, I'll follow your advise.

Originally Posted by t fuller

When I fry fish I coat them with a mix of corn meal and flour, shake in a
bag to coat , them drop into the deep fryer. Problem I have is the coating
falls off during frying. How do you fry fish where the coating sticks without
using a wash?

As DoyleAlley says, you have to let them sit out for a while, about 20min, for the batter to dry and stick to the fish.

Originally Posted by t fuller

When I fry fish I coat them with a mix of corn meal and flour, shake in a
bag to coat , them drop into the deep fryer. Problem I have is the coating
falls off during frying. How do you fry fish where the coating sticks without
using a wash?

You can put a light coat of yellow mustard on them or one egg + one tablespoon of water mixed together to help make the batter stick better.

(without using a wash is what seems to be the problem to me ) all of our fish get an egg bath before we put them in the dry mix , seems to work really well , just did a batch last night , look like they came out of a fancy cook book when done over here that way at our house , just saying .
we use a cast iron skillet and when a water drop ,hops right out of the canola oil its time to drop fish .
we run cornmeal and panko in our dry mix . often times leaning towards more cornmeal than panko .
the upside is my little dog gets a bit of dry dog food dropped in the left over egg and it hits the microwave for 30 seconds .....she really likes a fish fry no doubt , even if she ain't never ate any fried fish