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Indian Meal Fritters
Make a batter as for other fritters with four or five table-spoonfuls of meal, a pint of warm milk, and four well-beaten eggs. From a ladle drop the batter into boiling lard; have plenty in the pan. Keep each fritter separate, and serve, after drying before the fire, as quickly as possible, that they may not cool. Time, ten to twelve minutes to fry.
A thin drop batter fried in deep lard, from a period when "Indian meal" needed no explanation. Two things need attention before you start: the meal itself, and the frying time.
- Indian meal is cornmealThe name distinguished maize meal from wheat flour and dates from the colonial description of maize as "Indian corn." Use a fine or medium yellow cornmeal; coarse polenta grind will stay gritty in a batter cooked this briefly.
- The frying time is far too longThe frying time looks long -- ten to twelve minutes at a working frying heat would give a hard, dark, grease-soaked fritter. Modern practice for spoon-dropped fritters in fat at 350-365F is three to four minutes, turned once, though batter dropped from a ladle makes larger fritters that need longer. The original timing may assume a cooler pan of lard set over an open fire, where the fat had to recover heat between batches.
- The batter is looser than you expectFour or five tablespoons of meal to a pint of milk and four eggs is essentially a thin custard. It will spread and lace in the fat rather than hold a ball. If you want a fritter that keeps its shape, expect to add meal until the batter drops thickly from the ladle rather than pours; the original quantity is genuinely on the edge of workable.
- A pintCassell's is a British book, so a pint here is likely 20 fl oz, not 16. The recipe specifies warm rather than hot milk, which helps the meal hydrate; letting the batter stand twenty minutes before frying does no harm.
- Plenty of lard"Have plenty in the pan" means deep frying, not shallow. Two to three inches in a heavy pan, and fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash. Any neutral high-smoke-point fat works if lard is not to hand.
- Drying before the fireThis is draining and holding warm. Use a rack over paper in a 200F oven rather than paper alone, which steams the undersides soft.
- Yield and servingPerhaps 20 to 24 small fritters, though batter dropped from a ladle will make fewer and larger ones. The recipe is neutral, so it can go either way: dusted with sugar and served with lemon or a fruit preserve, or salted and served alongside meat.
Cornmeal entered British cookery books as a colonial import and kept its colonial name: "Indian meal" or "Indian corn" was maize, as opposed to "corn," which in British usage meant grain generally and wheat in particular. Cassell's dictionary belongs to the later nineteenth century, by which time cheap American maize was arriving in Britain in quantity, and household books carried recipes for it -- puddings, porridges, breads and fritters like this one -- often positioned as economical rather than fashionable. The fritter itself is the older form: a batter dropped into hot fat is one of the oldest ways of cooking in Europe.