jp-

I'll leave the too much fried food debate between youse guys [g]

watch the FryBaby - a small volume of oil will lose a lot of temp - especially if 'overloaded' - I use a pot and a thermometer - it's surprising how much / how fast the temp drops.

>>flounder
funny thing happened on the way to the Forum . . . I was instructed 'founder for dinner' - it's domestic wild caught flash frozen, thawed at the counter.
probably 1.5 Tb oil in the pan:

Cheese is usually a no-no with sodium restricted diets. Almost all dairy products or either out or very limited. When cheese is used in low sodium cookbooks it's mostly Alpine Lace - Low sodium Swiss. And as usual the low sodium variety isn't sold within a 100 miles of me. The curse of living in a rural area.

Dilbert, your flounder sounds a lot like the one I found. I've been frying it in a skillet with a little more then 1.5 Tbs of oil. Maybe I should reduce that amount.

>>reduce that amount

doesn't take a lot - I've found too much slows the browning - which can result in "nice color dear but the fish is overcooked"....

that breading is yellow corn meal & ap flour (50-50, roughly) plus seasonings. if the oil is hot - past the shimmer stage and pushing the 'getting ready to smoke' stage - very little oil is absorbed. typically I heat the pan at 'high' then as soon as the first pcs go in reduce the heat - left on full blast it will burn vs. brown. I go 'by ear' - keep the heat high enough that it is always sizzling....

don't seem to have a big problem with the fish breaking up - not sure I've learned any deep dark secrets but my 'technique' is put it in the pan, touch it not until ready to flip, use two wide spatulas - one on each side (that is one under, the other over - trapping the filet between the two) - to gently turn over - that allows me to control the filet better than a scoop&flip approach.

I've been using a 3 part cornmeal to 2 part flour with my onion and garlic powder plus pepper seasoning. The flipping is where they usually get pretty beat up but you're going to have to turn it whether baked or fried unless deep fried.

Lemon pepper goes well on it with garlic and onion!