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Mincemeat Fritters
Beat well three eggs, separating the yolks from the whites, moisten a large table-spoonful of flour with them, and when the batter is rubbed smooth add eight ounces of mincemeat and part of the juice of a lemon. Fry in boiling lard, and put the fritters on paper before the fire for a minute, then serve hot on a napkin. These fritters should be made small. Drop the mixture from a dessert-spoon into the frying-pan. Bread-crumbs may be used instead of flour--about two ounces and a half will be the quantity for three eggs. They should be very finely prepared. Time, six to seven minutes to fry. Probable cost, 10d.
A very short batter recipe that leans almost entirely on the mincemeat for flavour and body. Two things need attention: the egg handling, which the original only hints at, and the frying time, which is far too long for spoon-sized fritters.
- Separate for a reasonThe instruction to separate the yolks from the whites implies the whites are whipped and folded in at the end, which is what keeps such a thin batter from turning leaden. Beat the whites to soft peaks, mix the yolks with the flour and mincemeat, then fold the whites through and fry at once.
- The batter is deliberately scantOne tablespoon of flour to three eggs and half a pound of mincemeat is barely a binder. Expect a loose, dropping mixture rather than anything you could shape, and do not be tempted to thicken it with more flour or the fritters go bready.
- Frying timeSix to seven minutes is long for spoon-sized fritters and risks the sugar in the mincemeat darkening before the centre sets. In fat at around 350-360F, dessert-spoon fritters are likely to need only about two minutes a side, turning once, until deep gold.
- Fat and depth"Boiling lard" means hot lard, not lard at a boil; if it is smoking it is too hot. About an inch and a half in a deep pan is enough for fritters this size, and lard can be replaced with any neutral high-smoke-point oil.
- Mincemeat then and nowVictorian mincemeat was a suet-bound mixture of dried fruit, sugar, spice, peel and brandy, and older versions still included minced beef or tongue. Jarred modern mincemeat works directly; drain off any loose syrup so the batter does not slacken.
- Breadcrumb versionTwo and a half ounces of crumbs is roughly a cup and a quarter of very fine fresh crumbs, not dried packaged ones. They absorb more liquid, so this version is stiffer and holds its shape better in the pan.
- Draining and servingPaper before the fire means draining somewhere warm rather than in a draught; a rack in a 250F oven does the same job. The napkin on the dish helps absorb the last of the fat. Many period fritter recipes finish with a dusting of sifted sugar, though this one does not call for it.
- YieldThree eggs and half a pound of mincemeat give roughly eighteen to twenty small fritters, enough for four to six as a hot pudding.
Fritters of this kind were one way of using up mincemeat after the Christmas pies, and similar recipes appear in nineteenth-century English cookery books under names such as mincemeat fritters and mince fritters. Mincemeat itself began as a genuinely meaty preserve, sweetened and spiced fruit bound with suet and shredded beef, and the meat gradually disappeared from many recipes over the course of the nineteenth century; suet held on much longer. The "probable cost" line at the end is characteristic of the household dictionaries of the period, and 10d gives some sense of what the dish was reckoned to cost. Serving fried dishes on a folded napkin was a common Victorian presentation, the napkin standing in for the paper liner used today.