Chef Juliette
Shad
Alose grillée teaches the discipline of fire: score the famously bony fish close to the backbone, grill it over steady coals, and finish its rich flesh with parsley-lemon butter.
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Fresh Anchovies
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 754, Fresh Anchovies, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Fresh Mediterranean anchovies, left whole, dried with care, and sent to fierce heat until crisp at the edges and tender within, with lemon waiting at the table.
Main Dishes
French
Special Occasion
Dinner Party
35 min
Active Time
20 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
Anchois frais (fresh anchovies) teach the first law of small-fish cookery: the surface must be dry before it meets fierce heat. Get that right and the skin turns crisp while the flesh stays rich and tender. Leave the fish damp and even excellent anchovies emerge pale and soft.
The old entry assumed a Mediterranean fish market, hands at the fish station to clean the catch, and either a grill or a frying bath already hot. Its scaffolding was manpower and always-ready equipment. At home, the fishmonger cleans thirty-two fish, a deep skillet replaces the frying bath, and a grill basket keeps delicate bodies intact over the fire. The measured flour and oil make the book's brief instruction usable for four people; no stock, built sauce, or saucier belongs here because any of them would bury the catch. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Frying gives a fine golden shell; grilling leaves the skin bronzed and the flesh more plainly itself. Both honor the entry, and neither forgives delay once cooked. Before you touch the heat, dry every anchovy inside and out. That is the step that decides the dish.
Anchois frais belong to the Mediterranean ports of Provence and the Côte d’Azur, where the catch could move from boat to grill or frying pan before its delicate flesh softened. Inland France knew anchovies chiefly salted or packed in oil because preservation, not seasoning, made the fish travel. Fresh anchovies are not merely cured anchovies awaiting salt: cooked whole, they are mild and rich, close cousins to the other petits poissons served along the Mediterranean coast.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
small fresh anchovies
Quantity
32 (about 1½ lb / 680 g; 4 to 5 inches / 10 to 13 cm long)
gutted but left whole
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g)
divided
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
all-purpose flour (optional)
Quantity
¾ cup (180 ml / 90 g)
for frying
refined olive oil (optional)
Quantity
3 cups (720 ml / 660 g)
for frying
extra-virgin olive oil (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 27 g)
for grilling
lemons
Quantity
2
one halved and one cut into wedges
flat-leaf parsley leaves
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 15 g)
roughly chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| small fresh anchoviesgutted but left whole | 32 (about 1½ lb / 680 g; 4 to 5 inches / 10 to 13 cm long) |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| all-purpose flour (optional)for frying | ¾ cup (180 ml / 90 g) |
| refined olive oil (optional)for frying | 3 cups (720 ml / 660 g) |
| extra-virgin olive oil (optional)for grilling | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 27 g) |
| lemonsone halved and one cut into wedges | 2 |
| flat-leaf parsley leavesroughly chopped | ¼ cup (60 ml / 15 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Small sharp knife or kitchen shears
- •Wire cooling rack and rimmed tray
- •Deep 10-inch / 25 cm skillet and frying thermometer
- •Fish basket, plancha, or broiler-safe cast-iron pan for the grilled method
Instructions
- 1
Clean the anchovies
Ask the fishmonger to remove the gills and viscera while leaving each anchovy whole through the backbone; the heads may remain if you like their handsome look on the platter. If cleaning them yourself, open each belly with the tip of a small knife, remove the innards and gills, and rinse only when necessary. Handle them gently. Fresh anchovy flesh bruises under an impatient thumb.
Small anchovy bones soften during cooking and are eaten with the fish. Do not butterfly or bone them for this preparation; keeping the backbone intact protects the delicate flesh. - 2
Dry them completely
Lay the cleaned anchovies between clean kitchen towels and blot the bellies as carefully as the skins. Transfer them to a rack and refrigerate uncovered for twenty minutes, then blot once more. Do not salt yet, because salt draws water back to the surface. Dry fish browns; wet fish softens. This is the dish.
- 3
Prepare fierce heat
For anchois frais frits, pour the refined olive oil into a deep 10-inch / 25 cm skillet and heat it to 350°F / 180°C. Set a wire rack over a tray beside the stove. For anchois frais grillés, heat a grill, plancha, or broiler-safe cast-iron pan until fiercely hot, then oil a fish basket or the pan lightly. The high heat cooks these small fish before their flesh has time to dry.
- 4
Fry until crisp
For the fried method, mix the flour with ¾ teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4.5 g) of the salt and the pepper. Fariner, coat lightly in flour, six anchovies at a time, shaking away every loose trace, then lower them into the oil away from you. Fry without crowding for 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until fine-bubbled, pale gold, and crisp at the fins. Drain on the rack and restore the oil to 350°F / 180°C before the next batch. If a batch emerges pale and limp, the oil cooled too far. Ça se rattrape: reheat it fully and return those fish for 20 to 30 seconds, just until the crust firms.
- 5
Or grill boldly
For the grilled method, coat the anchovies with the extra-virgin olive oil, then season with the remaining salt and the pepper. Arrange them in a single layer in the fish basket or on the hot pan and cook for about 2 minutes per side, until the skins are bronze, the bellies opaque, and the fish release cleanly. If they cling, do not tug. Give them another 20 seconds, then ease a thin spatula underneath; the browned skin releases when it is ready.
- 6
Finish and serve
Pile the anchois frais loosely on a warm platter and squeeze the halved lemon lightly over them. Scatter with the parsley and bring the remaining lemon wedges to the table. Serve at once, while fried anchovies still crackle delicately at the fins or grilled ones retain their bronzed skins. Waiting is the only finishing sauce that ruins them. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Freshness is not negotiable here. Look for bright eyes, firm silvery bodies, red clean gills, and the smell of cold seawater. A strong fishy odor means the anchovies have already waited too long.
- •Ask the fishmonger to clean the anchovies while keeping the backbones intact. It removes the slowest piece of brigade work from your evening without changing the method at all.
- •Fresh anchovies are genuinely seasonal and uncommon away from the Mediterranean. If they cannot be found in excellent condition, cook small fresh sardines by the same method and call them sardines; canned anchovies cannot stand in for fresh fish here.
- •The frying flour is a veil, not a coat. Shake each fish well before it enters the oil or loose flour will burn on the bottom of the pan and darken later batches.
- •Pour a cold, dry white from Cassis or another Mediterranean French coast vineyard. Its salt-bright freshness belongs beside the fish and lemon.
Advance Preparation
- •The anchovies may be gutted up to 4 hours ahead. Keep them uncovered on a rack in the cold so their surfaces dry rather than sitting in their own moisture.
- •Measure the flour, prepare the parsley and lemon, and set the serving platter before heating the oil or grill. Flour, salt, and cook the fish only at the last moment.
- •Do not cook the anchovies ahead. Their pleasure lies in the brief interval between fierce heat and the table, and reheating dries the flesh before it restores the crust.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 180g)
Calories
415 calories
Total Fat
25 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
19 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
765 mg
Total Carbohydrates
11 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
36 g
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