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Pineapple Fritters
Drain sliced pineapple from the liquor in the can. Dry on a crash towel. Dip in batter and fry a golden brown in deep hot Cottolene. Drain on brown paper, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with some of the liquor from which it was drained. This may be slightly thickened with arrowroot, allowing one teaspoon arrowroot to each cup of liquor.
A short, confident set of directions that assumes you already have a fritter batter on hand and a kettle of fat at temperature. Two things need supplying: the fat and the batter.
- CottoleneA branded cottonseed-oil shortening, discontinued long ago. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point works in its place, or a solid vegetable shortening if you want the same texture on the crust.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe says only "deep hot" and gives no number. Modern practice for fritters is usually around 365-375F: below that the batter absorbs oil and slumps; above it the coating colors before the fruit inside has heated through.
- The batter is not givenThe recipe assumes a fritter batter you already know or can find elsewhere. Any standard one will do — roughly 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt, 1 egg and about 2/3 cup milk, beaten smooth and thick enough to cling to a slice.
- Crash towelA coarse, loosely woven linen kitchen towel. Paper towels do the same job. This step is the hinge: pineapple straight from the can is wet, wet fruit sheds its batter, and water dropped into hot fat spits.
- Canned rings, not freshThe recipe depends on canned fruit for both the tender slices and the syrup. Fresh pineapple is firmer and carries no sweet liquor to make the sauce.
- Arrowroot sauceOne teaspoon arrowroot per cup of syrup gives a light, clear glaze rather than a pudding. Slurry it in a spoonful of cold liquor first, then bring the rest just to a simmer — arrowroot thins if held at a hard boil.
- DrainingBrown paper means plain unprinted paper such as a grocery bag. A wire rack over a sheet pan keeps the undersides crisper than any paper.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity or yield; how many fritters you get depends on the can. Fry in batches of three or four so the fat holds its heat, and sugar them only at the moment of serving or the coating weeps.
52 Sunday Dinners (1913) was written by Elizabeth O. Hiller and published by the N. K. Fairbank Company, makers of Cottolene — which explains why the frying fat is named by brand here. Cottolene was a cottonseed-oil-and-beef-suet shortening promoted from the late 1880s onward as a cheaper, lighter substitute for lard, and cookbooks like this one were its chief advertising: a year of respectable Sunday menus. The fritters themselves reflect what canning had done to the American dessert course. Hawaiian pineapple was being packed in quantity by the 1900s, and a fruit that had been a luxury centerpiece a generation earlier could now be opened, battered and fried in the space of ten minutes — syrup included, ready to be thickened into its own sauce.