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Aubergines, Fried
Peel some fresh aubergines, and cut them in four slices lengthways. Salt a little, let them drain, then wipe with a clean cloth. Dip in yolk of egg and flour, and plunge into boiling fat to cook to a golden brown. Pile them in a heap on a napkin, and dish and serve very hot. Probable cost, 3d. each.
A short, sound method that depends almost entirely on the salting step. Get that right and the rest is a five-minute job.
- Salt and drain properlyLay the slices on a rack or in a colander, salt both sides, and leave 30-45 minutes until beads of liquid stand on the surface. Wipe them dry, or the batter will slide off and the fat will spit.
- Peeling is optional nowThe recipe tells you to peel, and older cultivars are often said to have had tougher skins. Modern skin is usually tender enough to leave on, and it helps hold the slices together in the fat.
- The coating"yolk of egg and flour" most likely means beaten yolk followed by a dusting of flour, though it could describe a yolk-and-flour batter. Yolk browns fast, so watch the colour; whole egg is more forgiving if you are frying a large batch.
- Fat temperature"boiling fat" is not defined in the book; modern deep-frying practice puts it at roughly 350-375F. Cooler than that and aubergine drinks oil; at the right heat the coating seals almost at once. Fry in batches so the temperature does not crash.
- The napkinServing fried food piled on a folded napkin was a common Victorian presentation, and it works as a blotter. Kitchen paper does the same thing, though the food should go to the table immediately either way.
- YieldOne large aubergine gives four slices, enough for two as a side dish. Salt lightly at the end as well; lemon is a common accompaniment to fried aubergine, though the recipe does not mention it.
The price note - threepence each - marks aubergines as a relatively costly item in a book where common vegetables cost far less. The vegetable reached Britain from the Mediterranean and had long been familiar in Italy, Spain, Turkey and the Levant, where salting and frying is among the plainest treatments. English writers of the period called it variously the egg-plant, the brinjal (a name carried home by Anglo-Indian households) and the aubergine, the French form used in this entry. The instruction to salt and drain reflects the bitterness of older cultivars; breeding has largely removed that, but the step survives because it also collapses the flesh and limits how much fat it absorbs.