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Cream Fritters
One and a half pints flour, one pint milk, six well-beaten eggs, one-half nutmeg, two tea-spoons salt, one pint cream; stir the whole enough to mix the cream; fry in small cakes. - Mrs. M. K. P.
A plain, eggy batter with no leavening and no sugar, measured the way an 1870s cook measured — by the pint. Its success hinges on frying temperature and on not overworking the batter.
- Convert the pintsOne and a half pints of flour is 3 cups; a pint of milk and a pint of cream are 2 cups each. Six eggs to 3 cups flour makes a batter closer to thick crepe batter than to a drop-biscuit dough.
- "Fry in small cakes" means hot fat"Fry in small cakes" most likely means hot fat -- fritters in this book are generally dropped by spoonfuls into deep lard or drippings, though the wording could also cover shallow frying in a pan. If deep-frying, 365-375F is a workable modern target: cooler and the batter drinks fat, hotter and the outsides brown before the eggy centre sets.
- No leavening is intentionalNo leavening is called for -- the recipe simply omits it, so what lift there is comes from the beaten eggs and the steam of the milk and cream. Beat the eggs well and use a light hand: "stir the whole enough to mix the cream" is the hinge, since overmixing develops gluten and gives tough, heavy fritters.
- The salt is highThe salt is generous -- two teaspoons in this quantity sits a little above modern practice, more so if the fat is salted drippings. Season to taste, and fry one test fritter before committing the batch.
- Half a nutmegA whole nutmeg grates to roughly 2 to 3 teaspoons, so half is a teaspoon or more — assertive but authentic for the period. Grate it fresh; pre-ground nutmeg at that dose tastes dusty rather than fragrant.
- Cream then and nowNineteenth-century "cream" from a household or dairy was skimmed by hand and its fat content varied a good deal; much of it was probably nearer today's light or single cream than heavy whipping cream, though richer skimmings were possible. Heavy cream will work but makes a noticeably richer, denser fritter; light cream is the nearer match.
- Yield and servingThe full quantity is large, several dozen small fritters, so halving it is sensible. Drain on paper, and serve hot with sifted sugar, maple syrup or a sweetened fruit sauce, since the batter itself carries none.
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping grew out of Ohio church and community fundraising compilations of the 1870s, which is why so many of its receipts end with a set of initials rather than a name \. among them. Fritters (from the Latin frigere, to fry, by way of the Old French friture) run through English and American cookery for centuries as a way of turning batter and whatever was to hand into something hot and quick, and the "cream" version is milk enriched with the day's skimmings and bound with a generous half-dozen eggs. It is placed under Breakfast and Tea Cakes, among the sort of thing set out at a morning or evening meal, where fried batter, hot bread and preserves shared the table. There is no sugar and no chemical leavening in it.