making batter stick

[Cam]

Hello and happy new years,
I'm having trouble making my batter stick to my prawns while deep frying. I end up with a cooked prawns and a large ball of cooked batter in the bottom of my deep fryer.Please help
Respectfully C

[Suzanne]

Toss them in flour or some other starch and shake off the extra first, then dip them in the batter. Also, make sure your oil is at the right temperature.

And Welcome!

[chefpeter]

cant agree with you on this remedy. As you know when you deep fry with batter the batter will crisp up on the outside and the fish steams from the inside. If you put a layer of starch between the batter and the fish the flour will absorb the moisture from the fish and turn into a rather unpleasant coating inbetween the fish and flour. I know you will argue that most cookery books advocate using flour but if you make your batter correctly there is no need for any starch

The comment on oil temp is absolutely correct

[panini]

Haven't been on the hot side for a while but from my own experience. I have a great recipe for batter shrimp and works great in my home fryer.
On request from a chef friend ,we tried the batter in his fryers at the restaurant. Our result was what Cam describes.We descided that there was to much turbulance in the fryer, oil to hot, and we tried to cook too many.
We lowered the temp which was off, cooked less, hand battered and hand placed with the baskets taken out. Very good results. I know this is time consuming. I also agree, shrimp right into batter to fryer.
Good luck

[Pete]

I tend to agree with panini and chefpeter on this one. I never flour (or starch in any way) my product before battering and frying it. You just need to make sure that your batter is the proper consistency (no I can't tell you what that consistency is because it all depends on the type of batter you are making) and you must treat it gently. Too often cooks think that deep frying takes no finesse, but it does. Many battered items, especially those with a delicate batter can't stand a lot of bouncing around (ie frying at a really high heat, banging the baskets around, stirring the stuff). When I do battered items I do it with a lowered basket. I dip my shrimp, fish, etc. in batter, allow it to drip off slightly, then gently hand lower it into the fryer, one piece at a time. Also watch the consistency of your batter over time. As you dip your shrimp you add small amounts of liquid, which over time loosen your batter, requiring that you re-thicken it occasionally.