Problems with fish batter??????????

[chefbk]

I've been working at a seafood restaurant for about 7 months, and it's been awhile since I've worked with"battered" fish & chips. This is a sig dish and we sell a TON OF THEM!! The problem is this: we are currently using drakes wet batter made with water, first the fish(pollack) is dusted in seasoned flour, then the batter, then fried at 360 degrees. The fish AND home made onion rings are coming out crispy and then sogging within minutes. The coating looks almost marbeled(lighter and darker areas) I need a crispy batter!!
I thought of upgrading oil(we use just clear oil), I want to upgrade to canola.
Then I thought perhaps tempura???? Can someone? Anyone?? Help me out?
I have twenty years experience and I am stumped and this is first priority with the owner!!!! Thanks,
BK

[toddlove8845]

Add a little oil to your batter. I guarantee it you it will work.

[Spritzer]

hey i worked for abit as a line chef on the deep fryer in a restaurant here in perth, we used canola oil at +- 170 degrees celcius (338 f ) the batter we used was our own, just self raising flour and water ( or beer for the beer batter )fish went in seasoned flour first then the batter, then fried, allways came out golden and crunchy course if you left it for 10mins it would go soggy
cheers
spritz

[Ma Facon]

Use 1/2 flour and 1/2 corn starch with a pinch of baking soda and salt add water to desired consistency. Very crisp and it holds well. Also sub rice flour for all purpose and it will be even crispier. Let us know what you think.

[paul]

Wow. Twenty years of experience. I only have twenty months.

Anyways, I learned this from a taxi driver in Spain: buy a bucket of KFC, strip off the skin, "glue" the skin on to your fish (or onions, if you wish) with some egg yolks, and voila! I call the dish Colonel Fish

[chefphilhahn]

Dip your fish in ice water first, then flour then batter. Use a tempura batter to really bring out a nice full looking, crisp, flavor filled battered fish. Your Tempura batter should call for 1 Gallon of ice cold water to 5 lbs of tempura batter.
Hope that helps
let me know how it works.

[OzarkRose]

Does it have to be a batter? I live in a humid enviroment and have found dry, wet, dry (crumbs) to stay nice the longest, and you can prep ahead for peak times, but it's a lot of hand work ... leaves alot of time for "shooting the breeze" ....

[chefbk]

Thanks for all the help. I solved the problem! I upgraded the fish in quality and began cooking it in canola oil. It's been working great!
BK

[Pete]

You will have to watch your batter throughout the night. Dipping raw fish in it will slowly thin it out as the fish will add more moisture as the night goes on. Keep an eye on your batter and thicken it as neccessary.

[CapeCodder]

My god, dump the batter and fry fish the New England way.

Soak 10-20 minutes in milk, coat with 1/2 AP flour and 1/2 FINE ground corn meal. Fry at 350. If you need a slightly heavier coating add 1 egg to every 2 c of milk.

Lighter and thinner than tempura. Works for all seafood - shrimp, oysters, soft shell clams, squid and scallops. 2 milllion clam shacks can't be wrong.

Batter is disgusting.

[Pete]

Have to disagree CapeCodder. I love both styles, batter and breading. Each can be horrible if done improperly, but each can also be sublime if done correctly. A properly executed beer batter can be wonderful.

[CapeCodder]

Pete, A lot of people think the colonists left England and sailed to the New World to escape religous persecution or seek their fortunes. While a few may have had that in mind, most did so to escape English-style battered fish.

In fact, one of the tenants in the Mayflower compact was "Henceforth seafood should be floured not battered." The tenant was removed from many later copies of the Mayflower Compact by the evil, now deceased, Lord Arthur Treacher. Originals with the tenant can be found in any seafood shop form northern Connecticut to Maine.

Wendy's ubiquitous commercial line. "Where's the beef?" is a takeoff on the Puritan "Where's the fish?" uprising when confronted with a mound of fish and chips in 1618 London that contained no discernible seafood at all. King George, when told of the general upset, stopped his dilly-dallying momentarily to utter, "Let them eat batter!"

You can look it up!

[Pete]

LOL!!!!!!!

Have another one CapeCodder!

I think you have to be careful with the temperature of the grease because after throwing cold fish into it all night the temp on the dial of the machine may read 360 but I'll bet the internal temp of the grease itself will be lower . If the product being fried doesn't seal up quick enough it and create that barrier it will start to absorb and abnormal amount of grease . Inbetween batches grease needs recovery time .....either that or you probably need to buy another fryer ! Cooking it too long will do the same thing !
Also you need to change out your grease in a timely and consistent manner or the quality of the finnished product will be compromised ! I see way too many restaurants trying to save a buck and stretching out the grease one week too long ! When you can smell the grease from a restaurant a block away down the street it usually means the grease is too old !
I worked at the Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod and we used to cook up 1000's of lbs of scallopes every week to rave reviews and we used a combo of flour and cracker meal for all our fried fish and it worked like a charm . ................But I will say also that a small piece of grouper cheek or a slice of trimmed clean monkfish tail deep fried in beer batter done right is something close to heaven !! I also love goujons of scrod haddok(spelling?) or chicken breast done in Tempura batter so Pete was right ....all these preparations can be wonderful if done right and awful if messed up ! As far as bread crumbs go ...hands down the only type to use is IMHO is "Panko"(Japanese style) !!! Just my thoughts ! signed foodibear

Not to know is bad ....Not to want to know is worse!