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ORANGE FRITTERS (another way)
To make the batter, see BATTER FOR FRYING. Divide some oranges into quarters; do it carefully so that none of the juice shall escape; the thick white or outer skin must be removed, but the thin skin that holds in the juices should be kept sound. Dip the pieces of orange in sherry, then into fine sugar, and lastly into the batter. Fry, and send to table in pyramid fashion, with powdered sugar over them, and a napkin on the dish. Fritters may be made with a variety of fruit--pears, strawberries, etc. Probable cost, 10d. Time to fry, five minutes. Sufficient for a small dish.
A straightforward fruit fritter that depends almost entirely on the segments staying intact. The batter is elsewhere in the book, so a plain frying batter of flour, egg and beer or milk will do.
- The hinge: keep the membrane wholePeel the orange, strip every trace of white pith, and separate the segments without piercing the thin membrane that holds the juice. A broken segment leaks into the fat, spits, and the batter slides off. Thick-skinned navel oranges are far easier to handle than thin-skinned juicing varieties.
- Dry the segments firstAfter the sherry dip, blot the segments on a cloth or paper before they go into the sugar and batter. Surface moisture is why fruit fritters shed their coating in the pan.
- "Fine sugar"Caster sugar, or granulated pulsed briefly in a grinder. "Powdered sugar" for the finish means sugar ground fine, close to what is now icing or confectioners' sugar.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature. Modern deep-frying practice would be around 350-360F, at which fritters colour quickly; the book's five minutes suggests a more modest heat, and prolonged frying turns the fruit to hot pulp.
- SherryA dry or medium amontillado suits it better than a cream sherry, which adds sugar on top of sugar. Note that the recipe says only to dip the pieces, not to soak them.
- The napkinA folded napkin on the serving dish was a common Victorian way of sending up fried dishes, to absorb fat. A rack over a warm plate does the same job and keeps the crust crisp.
- Cost and yieldTenpence was a trifling sum at the time. "Sufficient for a small dish" is all the book offers as to yield. Fry in batches and serve at once; they do not hold.
Cassell's is an alphabetical dictionary, and the cross-reference to BATTER FOR FRYING is simply how such entries operate, which is why this entry sends the reader elsewhere for the coating and treats the orange itself almost as an afterthought. Frying fruit in batter is very old European cookery, and by the late nineteenth century oranges had become cheap enough in Britain to be treated as an everyday dessert. The instruction to send them up "in pyramid fashion, with powdered sugar over them, and a napkin on the dish" is pure Victorian service: the napkin blotted the frying fat, and the heaped, snow-dusted arrangement was a familiar presentation for a sweet fritter or beignet of the period.