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Sage and Onion Fritters
Mince three large parboiled onions and ten leaves of sage very finely; mix with them three ounces of bread-crumbs, two beaten eggs, and pepper and salt to taste. When thoroughly blended make the mixture into small flat cakes, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry in boiling fat for eight minutes. Probable cost, 8d.
A stuffing mixture treated as a fritter, and it behaves like one: the mixture must be stiff enough to hold a flat cake before it meets the fat.
- "Boiling fat"Victorian shorthand for deep fat at the point where it shimmers and a crumb browns briskly — roughly 350-375F. Fat does not boil; if it is genuinely bubbling it is water contamination or the fat is breaking down.
- Eight minutes is too longEight minutes is likely long -- small flat cakes of cooked onion and crumb may need only 3-4 minutes at 375F to set and colour the coating; eight minutes at that heat risks a hard, dark crust and a dried interior.
- Parboil properlyGive the peeled onions 8-10 minutes in salted water and drain them thoroughly, pressing out moisture. Wet onion is the main cause of fritters that collapse in the pan.
- BreadcrumbsThree ounces is about 1½ cups of fresh soft crumbs, or a scant cup of dry. Use fresh crumbs in the mixture and dry crumbs for the outer coating.
- Ten sage leavesA large amount by modern taste. Six to eight leaves, finely minced, suits most palates; dried sage at about one to two teaspoons is a rough equivalent.
- Chill before coatingNot in the original, but 20 minutes in the refrigerator firms the cakes and makes the egg-and-crumb stage far less messy.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly eight to ten small cakes, enough for four as a side. The recipe gives no serving suggestion, but sage and onion is the usual stuffing mixture for roast pork, goose or duck.
- The cost note8d is eightpence in pre-decimal currency, given so a cook could price a dish against the household budget. It has no useful modern equivalent.
Sage and onion is the classic English stuffing for roast pork and goose, well established by the eighteenth century, and this recipe simply takes the forcemeat out of the bird and fries it separately. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery was issued in parts in the 1870s and later reissued in revised form as the New Dictionary of Cookery; it was aimed at middle-class households, which is reflected in the probable cost carried by nearly every entry.