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Cream Fritters
One and one-half pints of flour, yolks of four eggs, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, shortening of lard and butter together the size of a hickorynut, milk enough to make a rather thick batter; drop in hot lard and fry. Eat with butter and sugar, or dip pieces of apple into the batter before frying.
A great deal of lard is required to fry fritters properly; the lard may be strained and used again.
A plain drop-batter fritter, sweetened only at the table. The book gives no frying temperature, which is the one thing that decides whether these come out light or greasy.
- Fat temperatureBring the lard to 365-375F and keep it there; below about 350F the batter drinks fat and turns heavy, above 390F the outside colours before the centre sets. A thermometer is worth more here than any of the measurements given.
- A pint of flourFlour was routinely measured by volume in this period. One and a half pints is 3 cups, roughly 13 oz or 375 g of all-purpose flour.
- "Size of a hickorynut"A common period unit for fat, smaller than the walnut-sized lump other recipes call for: reckon on roughly 1 to 2 teaspoons total, half lard and half butter. It is there for tenderness, not for richness.
- Milk enoughAim for a batter that mounds on the spoon and drops reluctantly, closer to thick pancake batter than to pouring batter. That is somewhere near 1 to 1 1/4 cups of milk, but let the flour decide.
- Salt and sugarThe batter as written has neither. Since the sweetening comes from the table butter and sugar, add at least 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the batter or the fritters taste flat.
- Yolks onlyFour yolks with no whites gives a denser, more custardy crumb rather than a puffed one. The whites can be whipped and folded in if you want a lighter texture.
- Depth of fat"A great deal of lard" means enough for the fritters to float and turn, at least 3 inches in a heavy deep pan filled no more than halfway. Fry six or so at a time so the temperature does not crash.
- Straining and reusingSound advice then and now: cool the fat, strain it through a coffee filter or cloth, and refrigerate it. Discard it once it darkens, smokes early, or smells of what was last cooked in it.
- YieldA batter of this size will make a large plateful; fewer if you are wrapping apple slices in it. Serve them straight from the pan, as they toughen quickly on standing.
The name is a puzzle: nothing in it is cream, and the batter belongs to the same family as the drop batters that turn up under a number of names in American cookbooks of the period, where "cream" may have signalled richness or a soft texture rather than the ingredient itself. The closing line about straining and reusing the lard is the most telling detail: frying fat was a real household expense, and a recipe that called for "a great deal" of it owed the cook an explanation of how to get it back.