Fritter

“ As the fritters are done, take them out, on a perforated skimmer, draining the lard back into the frying-pan. Dredge the fritters thickly with powdered sugar, and lay on each some preserved peach, plum, or other sweetmeat. You may heap on every one a table-spoonful or more of marmalade. Send them to table hot. ”

“ The oil will do over and over again, and in the end is undoubtedly cheaper than the dab of grease or butter thrown away. There are hundreds of men who, in hot weather, would positively prefer a well-cooked vegetable fritter to meat, but yet they rarely get it at home. Fruit fritters are also very economical—orange fritters, apple fritters, &c., because the batter helps to make the dish a meal.
Those who have practised vegetarianism for many years will probably be of opinion that we have not called sufficient attention to the subject of fruit and nuts. ”

“ That is why we make so much haste in frying, for fritters have lost their excellence when they have lost their crispness."
"I suppose when we have dried them on the kitchen paper we had better dish them and put them in the oven to keep hot, ma'am."
"No, put them in the screen; they will keep crisper than in the oven. We shall not need to put them anywhere for more than a minute, however, for they are just done. ”

“ When chopped fruits or vegetables are stirred in, or the batter is to be used plain, it should be thick enough to retain its shape when dropped by spoonfuls into the frying-kettle. The fat should be deep enough to cover the fritters, and it should be smoking hot when used. Each fritter will at first sink to the bottom of the kettle; then, as the heat starts the baking powder into action and the dough begins to swell, it will rise to the surface, and should be gently turned, the turning to be repeated until the fritter is finely colored. ”

“ Even the best fritters served cold make a very poor dish. Besides fruit, the blossoms of the acacia and those of the violet make the most delicate fritters.
With Bread or Pain perdu.—Set one pint of milk on the fire with two ounces of sugar, and the rind of half a lemon, stir now and then, and when it rises add a few drops of essence to flavor, then take off and soak in it slices of bread, cut with a paste-cutter and about half an inch thick. When well soaked, drain; dip them in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs, and fry and serve as fritters. ”

“ Scrape and grate the roots, and stir into a batter made of the beaten eggs, the milk, and flour. Grate the salsify directly into this, that it may not blacken by exposure to the air. Salt, and drop a spoonful into the boiling fat to see if it is of the right consistency. As fast as you fry the fritters, throw into a hot colander to drain. One great spoonful of batter should make a fritter. ”

“ Odd as the receipt may seem in the reading, the fritters are most palatable. In the country, where milk is plenty, they may be made of cream—unless, as is too often the case, the good wife will save all the cream for butter. ”

“ Stir the whites into the cream in turn with the flour, put in nutmeg and salt, beat all up hard for two minutes. The batter should be rather thick. Fry in plenty of hot sweet lard, a spoonful of batter for each fritter. Drain and serve upon a hot, clean napkin. ”

“ When removing fritters from hot fat place on coarse brown paper to absorb any remaining fat. Fritters composed of vegetables, or oysters, should be served on a platter garnished with parsley, and fritters composed of fruit, should have pulverized sugar sifted over them liberally. Should a small piece of bread brown in the fat while you count twenty, fat is the correct temperature for frying croquettes, but is too hot for frying crullers or any food not previously cooked. ”

“ You may color these fritters pink by mixing in the batter a little prepared alkanet, the chips tied up in a thin muslin bag, and laid in a small saucer of sweet oil. Stir the co [450] lored oil into the batter; it has no taste, but the color is beautiful. Fritters may be colored green by mixing in the batter some of the juice obtained from pounded spinach leaves.
APPLE OR QUINCE FRITTERS.— Pare and core some pippin or bell-flower apples, or ripe quinces. ”

“ When the fat for frying is so hot a blue smoke arises, drop in the fritters or croquettes, one at a time, in order not to chill the fat or plunge a frying basket, containing only a couple of fritters at a time, in the hot fat, as too many placed in the fat at one time lowers the temperature too quickly and causes the fritters to be greasy and soggy. ”

“ Herbert. "To-day we shall be quite sufficiently busy preparing the fat for frying. Can you, Mary, tell me what it is to fry food? If you had to fry the fritters, for instance, how would you set about it?"
"Please, ma'am, let me think," said Mary. "When we fried the pancakes, we put a little fat in the frying-pan, and let it melt, and then put in the batter. So I suppose we should do the same with fritters."
"That is exactly what we must not do," said Mrs. Herbert. "There are a few things which we must fry in a shallow pan, with very little fat. Pancakes and omelettes are amongst them. ”

“ All kinds of rissoles, croquettes, fillets and cutlets of fish, fritters, &c., should be fried in this manner, and should not be darker than a golden brown. It is an advantage to use a frying-basket for all such things as are covered with egg and bread-crumbs; but fritters, or whatever is dipped in batter, should be dropped into the fat, as they become so light that they rise to the top of it. When they are a pale fawn colour on the one side, they should be turned over to the other. Care must be taken to drain everything, after frying, on kitchen paper in order to remove any grease. ”

“ Cut small any sort of candied fruit, and heat it [107] with a bit of fresh butter, some good milk, and a little grated lemon-peel; when quite hot, stir in enough of flour to make it into a stiff paste; take it off the fire, and work in eight or ten eggs, two at a time. When cold, form the fritters, fry, and serve them with pounded loaf sugar strewed over them. ”

“ Sift flour, baking powder and salt together; add milk and shortening to egg yolks, and add to dry ingredients; mix in beaten egg whites. Bake in well greased hot waffle iron until brown; turn once. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.
Fritters
Fritters are served for luncheon, dinner or supper, as an entree, a vegetable or a sweet, according to the ingredients used. The foundation batter is much the same for all fritters, and with some additions the first recipe given can be used for many varieties. ”

“ Take 3 quarts boiling water, 1⁄4 pound cornstarch, 1 can cream. Dissolve starch in a little cold water to make creamy paste of it. Pour cream in boiling water. Pour in cornstarch water when other water is boiling well. Add 2 ounces butter, stir well. Remove from stove and add 3⁄4 pound granulated sugar, flour with a little nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon extract, and pinch of salt. Serve hot with fritters. Fritters also hot.
Note.—In frying fritters do not let particles of fritters remain in grease; they will burn the grease. ”

“ In cooking these fritters, you may drop in three or four, one immediately after another; and they will not run, if the lard is boiling fast, and the batter thick enough, and made with the proper number of eggs.
VERY FINE MINCE-MEAT.—Boil two beef’s tongues, (perfectly fresh,) and, when cold, skin and mince them; including the fat about the roots. Mince, also, one pound of beef-suet, and mix it with the chopped tongues. Add four nutmegs powdered; two ounces of powdered cinnamon; and an ounce of powdered mace, with a table-spoonful of powdered cloves. ”

“ The lard used for frying them should be fresh and pure-flavoured: it renders them more crisp and light than butter, and is, therefore, better suited to the purpose. These fritters may be agreeably varied by mingling with the batter just before it is used two or three ounces of well cleaned and well dried currants, or three 382or four apples of a good boiling kind not very finely minced. Double the quantity of batter will be required for a large dish.
Eggs, 3; flour, 3 tablespoonsful; milk, 1/4 to 1/2 pint. ”

“ Make a sauce of the liquor, mixed with same quantity of milk, with a tablespoon of butter added, chopped parsley and flour to thicken. When making oyster or clam fritters use same rule as for fruit fritters, using clam juice and milk instead of all milk.
For the "fritter batter," sift together 1 pint of flour, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder and a pinch of salt. Stir slowly into it a pint of milk, then the well-beaten yolks of 3 eggs, and, lastly, the stiffly-beaten whites of eggs. Beat hard for a few minutes and fry at once in smoking hot fat. ”

“ Orange Fritters.— Pare and quarter 6 oranges and remove the white skin and pits; mix the orange pieces with the same ingredients as Apple Fritters, drop the mixture, by spoonfuls, into boiling lard and fry a light brown. See that each fritter has 3 pieces of orange and serve with following sauce:—Stir 2 tablespoonfuls butter with 6 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar to a cream and add the yolks of 2 eggs and 1⁄2 cup finely cut orange pieces; 110 set the sauce in a saucepan of boiling water and stir till it is melted; then serve. Care should be taken to choose oranges that are not bitter. ”

“ INDIAN FRITTERS.—Having beaten eight eggs very light, stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk, in turn with twelve large table-spoonfuls of yellow Indian meal, adding a salt-spoon of salt. When all is in, stir the whole very hard. Have ready over a clear fire, in a pot or a large frying-pan, a pound of fresh lard, boiling fast. Drop the batter into it, a ladleful at a time. If you find the batter too thin, stir into it a little more Indian meal. As the lard boils away, replenish it with more. As fast as they are done, take out each fritter with a perforated skimmer ”

“ Take off the fire and add the yolks of six eggs, one after the other, beating hard all the time. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth. Add this to the batter stirring it lightly in. Divide into pieces about the size of an egg, sprinkle them with flour and fry them in a very large saucepan of clarified fat, giving [Pg 47] each fritter room to swell without touching another. The fat should not be too hot at first, but as the fritters swell the heat should be increased. When a good colour take them out, drain them and sprinkle them with sugar. Serve at once very hot. ”

“ N.B.—The procedure is the same for Raspberry, Red-currant, Cherry, Orange, and Tangerine fritters. For the last-named, it is better to quarter them and peel them raw, than to slice them.
2422—FLOWER FRITTERS. Ex. ACACIA-FLOWER FRITTERS
Select some blown acacia flowers; besprinkle them with sugar and liqueur brandy, and leave them to macerate for thirty minutes.
Dip them in batter (No. 234) ; plunge them into plenty of hot fat; drain them; sprinkle them with best sugar and dish them on a napkin. ”

“ A napkin may be spread on the platter, and the croquettes served on it.
In Fritters.—When a rice-cake is cold, it may be cut in pieces, dipped in batter for fritters, fried (see Frying) , dusted with sugar, and served hot. ”

“ From a dietetic as well as a gastronomic point of view nothing could be more objectionable than the fried steaks, bacon, potatoes, and diverse deadly fritters daily placed on hundreds of thousands of American tables. ”

“ Serve with cream, or soft custard, or hard sauce.
Peach Fritters are made by the same recipe, but dropped by the spoonful in boiling lard.
Fried Smelts.—Cleanse and dry them, then dip them in milk, then in flour; shake off superfluous flour, and then egg and crumb them the same as chops, laying each fish when done on a bed of cracker meal. Make the lard as hot as for croquettes, and drop them in five or six at a time. If the lard is hot enough they will brown in two minutes.
Beef à la Mode.—Three pounds of the vein or any coarse part of beef that is solid meat, and half a pound of fat pork. ”

“ Dish them in a circle, sift a little white sugar on, and they are ready."
"I have enjoyed making apple fritters very much," said Margaret.
"That is well. The best of it is that when you have learnt to make apple fritters you can make fritters of any kind of fruit, for all the fruit fritters are made in the same way. Some fruits are dipped in sugar before being put in the batter, and it needs practice to keep the batter over them. Sometimes fruit is soaked in syrup. Then it must be dried before being dipped in the batter." ”

“ This batch should make about 40 fritters.
Making fritters—Using fritter ring
WALNUT FRITTERS.
Place in copper kettle
Set on furnace and mix with paddle.
When mixture starts to boil place thermometer in and cook to 300 degrees.
It is unnecessary to stir batch the entire time.
When batch has reached 300 degrees remove thermometer and add 4 lbs. walnut pieces and a tablespoonful salt.
Stir until thoroughly mixed and dump in a mass on a well-greased slab.
Manipulate in same manner as pecan fritters. ”

“ Stir this into a cup of gravy, or, if you have none, use instead a cup of white sauce made as directed in "Shad Roes in Ambush." Season to taste, fill a pudding-dish or scallop-shells with the mixture, and serve very hot.
Green-Corn Fritters.—Two cupfuls green corn cut from the cob, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls milk, one tablespoonful melted butter, flour enough for thin batter. Whip the eggs light, beat into these the corn and the other ingredients, adding the flour last of all. Bake on a griddle. ”

“ Warm these ingredients, and serve the sauce separately in a tureen. The fritters should be neatly dished on a white d'oyley, and pounded sugar sprinkled over them; and they should be well drained on a piece of blotting-paper before the fire previously to being dished. ”