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Corn Oysters
Score and press the corn as directed in preceding recipe; to every pint of pulp allow 2 eggs, 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of I dash of cayenne, flour, • ½ teaspoonful of salt, I dash of black pepper.
Beat the eggs separately; add first the yolks and then the whites to the corn, mix gently, add the salt, cayenne, black pepper and flour; mix again. Put two tablespoonfuls of lard or butter in a frying pan ; when hot, drop the mixture by spoonfuls into it; when brown on one side, turn and brown the other. Serve very hot.
A simple corn fritter that depends almost entirely on the quality of the corn pulp and the heat of the pan. Two things carry it: fresh corn scraped rather than cut, and whites folded in last.
- The scored-and-pressed cornThe "preceding recipe" means running a knife tip down each row of kernels to split them, then scraping the cob with the back of the blade to press out pulp and milk, leaving the tough hulls behind. About 6 to 8 ears of sweet corn give a pint of pulp. Canned or frozen kernels will not substitute directly, as they lack the starchy milk that binds the batter.
- The garbled line of measurementsThe original text has been scrambled in printing: read it as 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of flour, 1½ teaspoonfuls of salt, a dash of cayenne and a dash of black pepper to each pint of pulp. The salt figure is on the generous side; start with a teaspoon and taste a test fritter.
- Beating the eggs separatelyThis is the hinge. The yolks go in for richness and the beaten whites follow, so the fritters puff rather than sit flat. Note that in this recipe the seasonings and flour go in after the whites, so mix gently at that second stage and cook straight away, since beaten whites begin to deflate quickly.
- Flour quantityTwo tablespoonfuls per pint is very little, deliberately so; these should be corn held together by egg, not pancakes. If the pulp is watery the batter will spread in the pan, and another spoonful of flour is a fairer fix than a longer cook.
- Pan and fatLard fries cleaner and browner than butter, which will darken before the centre sets. A neutral oil with a knob of butter is one modern compromise. The recipe says only 'when hot': medium heat, with the fritters browned on one side before turning.
- Size and yieldDropped by the spoonful, a pint of pulp makes a good quantity of small fritters, enough to serve four as a side dish. Keep them in a single layer in a low oven while the rest cook rather than stacking them, which steams the crust.
Corn oysters are generally said to take their name from their resemblance to fried oysters: dropped by the spoonful into hot fat, they brown into irregular little ovals about the size of one. The dish belongs to the American sweet-corn kitchen of the nineteenth century, when the season for fresh corn was short and cookbooks gave whole clusters of recipes for using it at its milky stage. The scoring-and-pressing method this recipe assumes was common in that period and is part of the reason the fritters hold together on so little flour, since scraped pulp carries more starch and milk than cut kernels. The name is sometimes explained as a frugal substitute for real oysters, though oysters were cheap and plentiful in American cities in this period.