Ground queen conch folded into a peppery batter with onion and sweet pepper, dropped into hot oil and served with a key lime or mustard dipping sauce. The Bahamian dish that named the island's people.

Bahamian settlers, many arriving from the Abacos and Eleuthera through the 19th century, brought conch to Key West along with the word Conch itself, still the local term for anyone born on the island. Conch was cheap protein hauled from the flats. Florida's fishery could not survive the demand: harvest in Key West alone reached 250,000 conch a year in the 1960s, and after a moratorium in 1978 the state banned all queen conch harvest in 1985. Every fritter sold in Key West today is made from imported meat, mostly from Honduras, Belize and Jamaica, which is why menus say Bahamian style rather than local.

Where to eat Conch fritters in Key West

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Make it at home

Serves 440 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 350g conch meat, tenderised and finely chopped
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 120ml whole milk
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 1 red pepper, finely diced
  • 2 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Half a scotch bonnet, deseeded and minced
  • 1 tsp salt, half tsp black pepper
  • Neutral oil for deep frying
  • For the sauce: 4 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tbsp key lime juice, 1 tsp hot sauce

Method

  1. Pound the conch with a mallet until it gives, then chop it as fine as you can. Tough conch makes rubbery fritters.
  2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together in a bowl.
  3. Beat the egg into the milk, pour into the dry mix and stir to a thick batter.
  4. Fold in the conch, onion, pepper, spring onion, garlic and scotch bonnet. Rest 15 minutes.
  5. Heat the oil to 180C. Drop heaped tablespoons of batter in and fry 3 to 4 minutes, turning once, until deep gold.
  6. Drain on paper. Stir the mayonnaise, lime juice and hot sauce together and serve alongside.

Editor tip. Rest the batter before frying. It hydrates the flour and stops the fritters splitting open in the oil.

Common allergens: Shellfish, Gluten, Eggs.