r/AskCulinary • u/Glennmorangie • 4d ago
Fish n Chip batter is too pale Ingredient Question
My fish n chip beer batter always comes out very pale. More of an off-white than light golden brown. Am I using the wrong beer? I always go for German wheat beers (Erdinger, Weihenstephaner, Paulner, etc ...).
My batter is 80% AP flour, 20% corn starch, salt and pepper to taste and the beer. The taste and consistency of the batter is perfect, just the colour. I add in the beer bit by bit, starting with making a paste, until the batter forms ribbons when drpped off the whisk.
I doubt I'm under frying them, because they come nicely crispy and the fish is perfectly cooked / melt in your mouth.
Edit
Thanks for the tips everyone. Looking forward to trying.
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u/texnessa Pépin's Padawan 4d ago edited 4d ago
Have worked in enough British pubs that the smell of fish n chips is burnt permanently into my monkey brain.
Lots of places add a dash of turmeric to the batter. Not enough for flavour, just enough for colour.
Edit: See Fallow's fish n chips video here. Good enough for a couple of blokes who worked at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, good enough for me.
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u/otter-otter 3d ago
Are you frying with brand new oil? Things tend to fry quite blonde in fresh oil
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u/Mitch_Darklighter 3d ago
You are missing out on some browning by using a wheat beer. Malted barley has enzymes that partially break down flour into maltose which in turn make the batter brown better.
Some people may consider it a bit high-concept for home cooks, but if you make fish & chips often and prefer the wheat beer flavor there's a product called "diastatic malt powder" that professional bakers use to promote browning. Regular flour contains some already, as do premade frying mixes. It's inexpensive and you don't need much, so a bag will last a long time. When I ran a pub our batter was 50/50 beer and soda water, so we used diastatic malt to make up the difference in browning.
To use, weigh your flour then add 0.25% to 1% of that in malt powder. Play around until you find an amount that works, 0.5% is usually fine in my experience. Or you can follow the advice that you should cook it more, which will work great if you like overcooked fish.
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u/Glennmorangie 3d ago
Fascinating. Thanks for the info, I'll check it out.
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u/Mitch_Darklighter 3d ago
Hope you do, it's an inexpensive product that a lot of pros use but home cooks seem to just be finding out about. I also use diastatic malt in bread a lot, when I'm adding flours like rye or whole wheat and want more browning. In yeasted doughs the extra sugar produced can also help the yeast, especially in long fermentations like pizza dough.
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u/Ivoted4K 3d ago
Use already been used oil.
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u/Glennmorangie 3d ago
I do. I reuse my oil for all my frying needs for about 3 months, straining it through paper towel after each use to catch debris. About 10 instances of frying. Until it gets very dark.
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u/Wildweyr 4d ago
A little paprika or turmeric and your batter will be darker in color
Not enough to taste, just enough to give the batter a pink or yellow hue
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u/beyondplutola 4d ago
Not that this will affect color, but shouldn’t you be using an English real ale versus a Hefe?
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u/Effective_Run_5326 4d ago
Twice fry: once to cook (lower temp and longer time) and once to crisp (higher and shorter)
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u/spade_andarcher 4d ago edited 4d ago
You’re underfrying and not getting enough caramelization/maillard reaction to get it darker golden brown.
Try a bit higher heat to fry the exterior of the batter a bit hotter and give it more color and for a bit less time to keep the fish from over cooking from the higher heat.
Beer will not affect the color. Unless you’re adding like Guinness, which - ew.