long and 9 broad, with perpendicular sides, and
must be half filled with fat: good frying is, in fact, boiling in fat.
To make sure that the pan is quite clean, rub a little fat over it, and
then make it warm, and wipe it out with a clean cloth.

Be very particular in frying, never to use any oil, butter, lard, or
drippings, but what is quite clean, fresh, and free from salt. Any thing
dirty spoils the look; any thing bad-tasted or stale, spoils the
flavour; and salt prevents its browning.

Fine olive oil is the most delicate for frying; but the best oil is
expensive, and bad oil spoils every thing that is dressed with it.

For general purposes, and especially for fish, clean fresh lard is not
near so expensive as oil or clarified butter, and does almost as well.
Butter often burns before you are aware of it; and what you fry will get
a dark and dirty appearance.

Cooks in large kitchens, where there is a great deal of frying, commonly
use mutton or beef suet clarified (see No. 84): if from the kidney, all
the better.

Dripping, if nicely clean and fresh, is almost as good as any thing; if
not clean, it may be easily clarified (see No. 83). Whatever fat you
use, after you have done frying, let it remain in the pan for a few
minutes, and then pour it through a sieve into a clean basin; it will do
three or four times as well as it did at first, _i. e._ if it has not
burned: but, _Mem._ the fat you have fried fish in must not be used for
any other purpose.

To know when the fat is of a proper heat, according to what you are to
fry, is the great secret in frying.

To fry fish, parsley, potatoes, or any thing that is watery, your fire
must be very clear, and the fat quite hot; which you may be pretty sure
of, when it has done hissing, and is still. We cannot insist too
strongly on this point: if the fat is not very hot, you cannot fry fish
either to a good colour, or firm and crisp.

To be quite certain, throw a little bit of bread into the pan; if it
fries crisp, the fat is ready; if it burns the bread, it is too hot.

The fire under the pan must be clear and sharp, otherwise the fat is so
long before it becomes ready, and demands such attendance to prevent the
accident of its catching fire,[81-*] that the patience of cooks is
exhausted, and they frequently, from ignorance or impatience, throw in
what they are going to fry before the fat is half hot enough. Whatever
is so fried will be pale and sodden, and offend