COATING Style 3: BEER BATTER Beer-Battered Fried Fish Here’s the thing: Fish is extremely delicate, while frying is horribly violent Dropping a hunk of fish into a pot of hot oil is like throwing an Ewok into a cage match with a Terminator: it doesn’t stand a rat’s chance in hell This is particularly true of white-fleshed, slow-moving, bottom-dwelling fish like cod or halibut These large ichthyoids spend the vast majority of their time slowly grazing along the ocean floor, like gigantic cows of the sea As such, their muscles don’t get much of a workout Just as with land animals, the less they use their muscles, the more delicate they’ll be in both flavor and texture It’s this mildness that is prized above all in these white-fleshed fish, and it’s a characteristic that we should attempt to maximize during cooking Just like steak and chicken, fish flesh will dry out and toughen if cooked to too high a temperature Our goal with a fish like cod is to bring it up to around 150° to 160°F—just hot enough to break down the thin, film-like membranes of connective tissue between the layers of muscle but not hot enough to dry it out ...grazing along the ocean floor, like gigantic cows of the sea As such, their muscles don’t get much of a workout Just as with land animals, the less they use their muscles, the more delicate they’ll... texture It’s this mildness that is prized above all in these white-fleshed fish, and it’s a characteristic that we should attempt to maximize during cooking Just like steak and chicken, fish flesh will... Our goal with a fish like cod is to bring it up to around 150° to 160°F—just hot enough to break down the thin, film-like membranes of connective tissue between the layers of muscle but not hot enough to dry it out