Fried Whitebait
Prep Time 10 minutes 
Cook Time 30 minutes 
Total Time 40 minutes 
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1 kg smelts small whitebait
- 200 gr plain flour
- 2 l rapeseed oil or sunflower oil
- 2 lemons to serve
- salt and black pepper
For the fries
- 800 gr firm-fleshed potatoes
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
Equipment
Instructions
1. Prepare the fish
- Rinse the whitebait gently under cold water, then dry thoroughly with kitchen paper. Wet fish steams instead of fries. You will lose the crunch before you have even started.
2. Prepare the fries
- Peel the potatoes and cut into fries. Rinse under cold water to remove excess starch, then dry thoroughly with kitchen paper. Wet potatoes will not crisp properly.
3. Oven bake fries
- Preheat oven to 220°C (fan 200°C). Toss the fries in olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Spread in a single layer on a lined baking tray with no overlapping. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes , turning halfway through, until golden and properly crisp.
4. Coat the fish
- Tip the flour into a shallow bowl and season generously with salt and pepper. Add the whitebait in batches and toss until evenly coated. Shake off any excess. A heavy coating turns gluey in the oil.
5. Heat the fryer
- Fill your deep fryer with oil and heat to 180°C. If you do not have a built-in thermometer, drop a small piece of bread in. It should turn golden in about 5 minutes .
6. Fry the whitebait
- Lower the whitebait into the fryer basket in small batches. Overcrowding drops the oil temperature and kills the crunch. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes until golden and crisp. Lift the basket, drain briefly, then tip onto kitchen paper. Season with sea salt straight away while still hot. Repeat with the remaining fish.
7. Serve
- Pile the whitebait onto plates alongside the oven fries. Serve immediately with lemon wedges. These do not improve with sitting around.
Notes
- Whitebaits are eaten whole, heads, tails, bones and all. That is the point. The texture is part of it.
- Small batches in the fryer are non-negotiable. Too many fish at once and the oil temperature drops, leaving you with soggy whitebait.
- Dry the fish really well before coating. Moisture is the enemy here.
- Aioli or sauce gribiche alongside is never a bad idea.
- If you want proper frites rather than oven chips, double-fry them in the fryer: first at 160°C for 5 minutes, then at 180°C for 2 to 3 minutes. Worth the extra step.
About this recipe
The last time I ordered fried whitebait was at the Rungis market near Paris. Rungis is technically a wholesale market reserved for food professionals, but I was lucky enough to have a friend take me. When my huge plate of crispy whitebait arrived, it took me straight back to my childhood in the south of France. The fish was so fresh, nothing like the frozen batches you find in the supermarket, and it was absolutely delicious. In my opinion, all you need with deep fried whitebait is a good squeeze of lemon juice and nothing else. And don’t squeeze the whole plate at once or the fish will go soggy before you get to the end of it!
Where fried whitebait comes from
Fried whitebait doesn’t have a single inventor or a specific origin story, but it does have a very specific cultural home: the guinguette.
The guinguette appeared on the outskirts of Paris in the 18th century, along the banks of the Seine and the Marne. They were open-air cafés that sprang up just outside the city walls, originally to avoid the tax on wine entering Paris. The name comes from “guinguet,” a light, cheap white wine served there. By the 19th century they had become a proper institution. Workers and families would escape the city on Sundays to eat, drink, dance to accordion music, go boating, and eat fried fish with their fingers at tables under the trees. That image of a plate of crispy whitebait, eaten outdoors by the water with a cold glass of white wine, is essentially where this dish found its identity in France.
The friture de Seine, small fish dusted in flour and dropped straight into boiling oil, eaten with fingers, coarse salt, and lemon, was the emblematic dish of the guinguette. Renoir painted these scenes of popular life on the riverbanks, and the guinguette became one of the most recognisable images of French social history.
So when you make fried whitebait at home, you’re cooking something that’s been eaten for well over two hundred years!
What fish is whitebait?
Whitebait is a catch-all term for very small whole fish, and in France the éperlan is what you’re most likely to find. It’s a silvery fish from the same family as salmon and trout, usually between 10 and 20 centimetres long, caught in the cold estuaries and coastal waters of the Channel and the Atlantic. One thing worth knowing: a very fresh éperlan smells faintly of cucumber, which sounds strange but is actually a good sign. That smell disappears quickly once the fish is no longer completely fresh, so it’s a useful thing to check at the market.
They were once called “poor man’s fish,” cheap, abundant, and eaten by the fishermen themselves because they were the least valuable of the catch. Today they hold a cherished place on bistro menus and beachside café chalkboards, celebrated for exactly the same reasons: they’re simple, seasonal, and taste completely of the sea.
The French tradition of fried whitebait
In spring, when the éperlans swim up the estuaries to spawn, fishermen along the Seine and Loire still organise fêtes de l’éperlan where the fish are fried in huge vats and shared communally. It’s a tradition that goes back generations. In cities like Rouen and Orléans, fresh éperlans appear at markets from March onwards, and that arrival signals the end of winter.
In France, fried whitebait are sold in paper cones along the coast, eaten standing up, still hot from the fryer, hence why I called them “fish-chips”, not to be confused with the UK fish & chips. They’re like fries, you just eat them with your fingers and a lemon wedge.
How to fry battered whitebait
Deep fried whitebait needs oil at the right temperature, and it needs to stay there. Too cool and the fish absorbs the oil rather than crisping in it. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside is done. The target is 180°C throughout.
I like using my Tefal fryer for this crispy fried whitebait recipe. The thermostat maintains the oil at a precise temperature throughout cooking, which is the single most important factor in getting consistent results. It also has a basket that lifts the fish out of the oil cleanly and lets the excess drain immediately, which keeps the coating crispy rather than letting it sit in oil and soften.
The other thing that matters is batch size. Too many fish at once and the oil temperature drops immediately, and you get something that steams rather than fries. Small batches, enough room for each fish to move in the oil, and season with sea salt the moment they come out while they’re still hot. That’s it.
How to eat fried whitebait
Crispy fried whitebait is always served immediately, straight from the fryer whilst the coating is at its most shatteringly crispy. Have the lemon wedges ready, have the plates warm, and get them to the table immediately.
A squeeze of lemon is the only essential. A small pot of aioli or sauce tartare alongside is never a bad idea either, the acidity works really well against the richness of the frying. In France, a portion of éperlans frits with a glass of cold Muscadet or a local dry white is a lunch that needs nothing else. And obviously, eat them with your fingers!
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