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Scalloped Corn (Hull mixed with the pulp)
the hull mixed with the pulp. To this pulp add the milk, salt, pepper, yolks of the eggs and the flour. Beat well. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add them to the baking powder, stir carefully until thoroughly mixed. Have ready a pan of deep lard, drop the mixture by spoonfuls into the boiling fat; brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other. Remove each one with a skimmer, drain on brown paper. Serve very hot.
Do not pierce the fritters with a fork, as it allows the steam to escape and makes the fritters heavy, Canned corn may be used, allowing one pint finely chopped.
The instructions here are for deep-fried corn fritters, and the opening lines carrying the quantities are missing, so treat what follows as a method rather than a formula. A workable proportion for six ears of corn, or one pint of chopped canned corn, is about a half cup of milk, two eggs, a half cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, and salt and pepper.
- Getting the pulpThe phrase "hull mixed with the pulp" means the whole kernel is used, skins and all, rather than the milky pulp scored and scraped from the cob. Cut the kernels off, then run the back of the knife down the cob to release the remaining milk.
- Frying temperature"Boiling fat" carries no thermometer reading in a book of this date; for fritters of this kind a fat temperature of roughly 350-365F works. Much below that the batter drinks oil and the fritters turn greasy; much above 375F the outside colours before the egg and flour inside set.
- Depth of fatA pan of "deep lard" means enough for the spoonfuls to float and turn freely, roughly two to three inches. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop more than 20F when the batter goes in.
- Folding the whitesThe beaten whites and the baking powder both do lifting work, so fold rather than stir and get the batter into the fat promptly. A batter that sits will deflate and fry dense.
- DrainingBrown paper was the standard drain of the period; printed newsprint and unbleached kraft are not suited to hot food now. Use a rack set over a sheet pan, which also keeps the undersides from steaming.
- Not piercing themThis is the one instruction worth keeping literally. The recipe's reasoning is that the trapped steam holds the crumb open and a fork puncture lets it go, so lift and turn with a slotted spoon or skimmer.
- Canned and frozen cornOne pint of canned corn, drained and chopped, stands in for the fresh. Frozen kernels work equally well once thawed and patted dry, since excess water thins the batter and makes it spread in the fat.
- YieldWith the reconstructed proportions above, a pint of corn should make something in the region of a dozen and a half small spoon-sized fritters, enough for about four as a side dish.
Corn fritters belong to the long American habit of stretching a summer vegetable with egg and a little flour and dropping it into hot fat, a technique applied equally to oysters, clams, apples and parsnips in nineteenth-century kitchens. Green corn, meaning sweet corn taken before the sugars turn to starch, had a short season, and it was used up in a variety of ways: boiled, stewed in milk, baked in a pudding, scalloped with crumbs, and fried like this. The call for lard rather than butter is practical rather than nostalgic, since lard tolerates frying heat without browning the way butter solids do. The warning against piercing the fritters is a small piece of kitchen physics.