Whiting

Merlan

What it is

Its flesh is so soft that classical cooking gave it two shapes to hold it together: opened flat and crumbed as merlan Colbert, which Escoffier fixed in print in 1921, or curled with its tail wedged in its mouth and fried, en colère. Old Parisian slang called a barber a merlan as well, after the powder that left him whitened like a floured fish.

In the kitchen

It will not survive a wet cooking method: dry it thoroughly, take it through flour, egg and crumb, and fry at 180 °C. For quenelles work the flesh with ice-cold cream over a bowl of ice — above 8 °C the mixture splits, and no amount of beating brings it back.

Goes with

Butter Lemon Parsley Egg T55 flour Cream Tarragon

In season alongside

Haddock Hake John Dory Pollock Sea bass Trout

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