Fish fry
Encyclopedia
A fish fry is a meal containing batter
Batter (cooking)
Batter is a semi-liquid mixture of one or more flours combined with liquids such as water, milk or eggs used to prepare various foods. Often a leavening agent such as baking powder is included to aerate and fluff up the batter as it cooks, or the mixture may be naturally fermented for this purpose...

ed or bread
Breading
Breading is a dry grain-derived food coating for a piece of food such as meat, vegetable, poultry, fish, shellfish, crustacean, seitan, or textured soy, made from breadcrumbs or a breading mixture with seasonings. Breading can also refer to the process of applying a bread-like coating to a food...

ed fried fish
Fried fish
Fried fish refers to any fish that has been prepared by frying. Often, the fish is covered in batter, or flour, or herbs and spices before being fried.-Overview:Fish is fried in many parts of the world, and fried fish is an important food in many cuisines...

. It typically also includes french fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

, coleslaw
Coleslaw
Coleslaw, sometimes simply called slaw in some American dialects, is a salad consisting primarily of shredded raw cabbage. It may also include shredded carrots and other ingredients such as fruits and vegetables, apples, onions, green onions, peppers and various spices.-History:The term "coleslaw"...

, hushpuppies
HushPuppies
HushPuppies is a French garage rock band influenced by the various bands of the sixties. Members of the group live in Paris, France, although originate from Perpignan and Bordeaux.- Members :* Singer: Olivier Jourdan* Guitar: Cyrille Sudraud...

, lemon slices, tartar sauce
Tartar sauce
Tartare sauce is a creamy white sauce frequently used to season fried seafood dishes.-Composition:...

, malt vinegar and dessert. Some Indian versions are cooked by coating fish with semolina
Semolina
Semolina is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, and also used for breakfast cereals and puddings. Semolina is also used to designate coarse middlings from other varieties of wheat, and from other grains such as rice and corn.-Name:The term semolina derives from...

 and egg yolk. Fish is often served on Friday nights during Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...

 as a restaurant special; such a menu offering is sometimes "all you can eat" and occasionally family style (serving dishes brought to and left at the table). Beer is a common beverage of choice to accompany a fish fry. A fish fry may include potato pancakes (with accompanying side dishes of sour cream or applesauce) and sliced caraway rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...

 if served in a German restaurant or area.

A Shore Lunch is traditional in the northern United States and Canada. For decades outdoor enthusiasts have been cooking their catch on the shores of their favorite lakes.

Fish fries are very common in the Midwestern and northeastern
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...

 regions of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. This is especially true for predominantly Roman Catholic communities on Fridays during Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...

, when regulations
Fasting and Abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church
For Roman Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal a day. This may or may not be accompanied by abstinence from meat when eating....

 calling for abstaining from most meat products. The modern fish fry tradition is strongest in Wisconsin, where more than 1,000 eateries hold a weekly fish fry on Fridays, and often on Wednesdays. Fish fries there are offered at many non-chain restaurants, taverns that serve food and some chain restaurants. The Friday night fish fry is a popular year round tradition in Wisconsin among people of all religious backgrounds. A typical Wisconsin fish fry consists of beer batter fried cod
Cod
Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...

, perch
Perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus Perca, freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which there are three species in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Perciformes, from the Greek perke meaning spotted, and the...

, bluegill
Bluegill
The Bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes.-Range and distribution:...

, walleye
Walleye
Walleye is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch...

, or in areas along the Mississippi River, catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

. The meal usually comes with tartar sauce, french fries or German-style potato pancakes, coleslaw
Coleslaw
Coleslaw, sometimes simply called slaw in some American dialects, is a salad consisting primarily of shredded raw cabbage. It may also include shredded carrots and other ingredients such as fruits and vegetables, apples, onions, green onions, peppers and various spices.-History:The term "coleslaw"...

, and bread, though baked beans
Baked beans
Baked beans is a dish containing beans, sometimes baked but, despite the name, usually stewed, in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans – a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris – in a sauce. In Ireland and the United Kingdom, a tomato...

 are not uncommon. The tradition in Wisconsin began because Wisconsin was settled heavily by German Catholics whose religion forbade eating meat on Fridays. The number of lakes in the state meant that eating fish became a popular alternative. Scandinavian settlements in northern and eastern Wisconsin favored the fish boil
Fish boil
A fish boil is a Great Lakes culinary tradition in areas of Wisconsin and along the coastal Upper Great Lakes, with large Scandinavian populations. Fish boils enjoy a particularly strong presence in Door County, Port Wing and Port Washington, Wisconsin...

, a variant on the fish fry, which involves heating potatoes, white fish, and salt in a large cauldron.

Battered or breaded haddock
Haddock
The haddock , also known as the offshore hake, is a marine fish distributed on both sides of the North Atlantic. Haddock is a popular food fish and is widely fished commercially....

 and cod
Cod
Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...

 fish fry is one of the trademarks of upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

 cuisine, especially Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, as well as Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, and Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...

. The majority of restaurants in these cities serve a fish fry on Friday, even outside Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...

, and it's often available throughout the week.

Southeastern United States

In the southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 United States, a fish fry is a family or social gathering, held outdoors or in large halls. At a typical fish fry, quantities of fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 (such as bream, catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

, flounder
Flounder
The flounder is an ocean-dwelling flatfish species that is found in coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.-Taxonomy:There are a number of geographical and taxonomical species to which flounder belong.*Western Atlantic...

 and bass
Bass (fish)
Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...

) available locally are battered and deep fried in cooking oil. The batter usually consists of corn meal, milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

 or buttermilk
Buttermilk
Buttermilk refers to a number of dairy drinks. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream. It also refers to a range of fermented milk drinks, common in warm climates where unrefrigerated fresh milk otherwise sours quickly...

, and seasonings. In addition to the fish, hushpuppies
HushPuppies
HushPuppies is a French garage rock band influenced by the various bands of the sixties. Members of the group live in Paris, France, although originate from Perpignan and Bordeaux.- Members :* Singer: Olivier Jourdan* Guitar: Cyrille Sudraud...

 (deep fried, seasoned corn dumplings), and cole slaw
Cole Slaw
Cole Slaw is an album by jazz saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded for the Argo label in 1964 and performed by Donaldson with Herman Foster, Earl May, Bruno Carr, and Ray Barretto.The album was awarded 3 stars in an Allmusic review....

 are served. These events are often potluck affairs. The world's largest fish fry is held each spring in Paris, Tennessee. In Georgia and South Carolina, fish are dipped in milk, then into a mix of flour, cornmeal and seasonings before frying. Buttered grits is often a side dish.

Knights of Columbus

The Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....

 have long held fish fries on Fridays. Most parish-based councils hold fish fries on Fridays during Lent, while other more well-off councils hold such events either monthly or bi-monthly throughout the year. Still others hold the event once or twice a year, according to demand and financial capabilities. Knights of Columbus fish fries are often advertised as family events, as socials for parishioners.

South Asia

Karimeen fish
Etroplus suratensis
The green chromide is a species of cichlid fish from freshwater and brackish water in southern India and Sri Lanka...

 fry is also popular in Kerala, India.

In West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

 and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

 (greater Bengal), fried fish or Māchh bhājā is a common delicacy eaten as a snack or fritter to go with a meal. Riverine fish like bhetki, topshey, aarh and pābdā (Ompok
Ompok
Ompok is a genus of catfishes of the family Siluridae.They are sometimes called "butter catfishes", but this can also refer to the African genus Schilbe of the family Schilbeidae.-Taxonomy:...

 pābdā), and anadromous fish such as hilsa
Hilsa
Ilish , also spelled Elish, is the most popular fish to Bengalis. Its the national fish of Bangladesh and extremely popular in parts of India such as West Bengal, Orissa, Tripura, Assam as well. Ilish also can be found at India's Assamese-, Bengali- Oriya-speaking regions and in Telugu-speaking...

 are commonly fried in Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine is a culinary style originating in Bengal, a region in the eastern South Asia which is now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh. Other regions, such as Tripura, and Barak Valley region of Assam also have large native Bengali...

 and Assamese cuisine. The oil used to fry the fish may often be used as a dipping sauce. Fried fish roe (e.g. of hilsa) are also often eaten this way. The fish is often deeply fried such that fish bones become crispy and edible, as is the case with small fish like Maurala (Opio cephalus).

See also

  • Fish boil
    Fish boil
    A fish boil is a Great Lakes culinary tradition in areas of Wisconsin and along the coastal Upper Great Lakes, with large Scandinavian populations. Fish boils enjoy a particularly strong presence in Door County, Port Wing and Port Washington, Wisconsin...

  • Seafood boil
    Seafood boil
    Seafood boil is the generic term for any number of different kinds of social events in which shellfish is the central element. Regional variations dictate the kinds of seafood, the accompaniments and side dishes, and the preparation techniques . In some cases, a boil may be sponsored by a community...

  • Wurst mart
    Wurst mart
    A Wurst mart, sometimes spelled Wurstmart or Wurst Markt, is a variation on a fish fry found predominantly in German-American communities. Wurst marts are usually held by churches as fundraising events, where people will pay for a buffet of sausages and other side dishes...

     a sausage cook event
  • Burgoo
    Burgoo
    Burgoo is a term used for many types of stew or porridge made from a mixture of ingredients.-North American usage:Burgoo is a spicy stew, similar to Irish or Mulligan stew, often served with cornbread or corn muffins....

     a Southern stew that is sometimes a church fundraiser
  • Fasting and Abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church
    Fasting and Abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church
    For Roman Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal a day. This may or may not be accompanied by abstinence from meat when eating....

  • Fish and chips
    Fish and chips
    Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...

  • Pescado frito‎
  • Stamp and Go
    Stamp and Go
    Stamp and Go is a fish fritter in Jamaican cuisine. It is part of a Jamaican breakfast along with ackee and callaloo fritters. It is referred to as one of the original fast foods. And the name is said to refer to people stamping their feet and then going with the fast to prepare meal....

    Jamaican breakfast fish fritter
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