Batter
for fritters and for frying meat and vegetables.
Take equal quantities of flour and of liquid. Say there are ten ounces of flour-the liquid will be represented by two ounces of melted butter and half a pint (eight ounces) of lukewarm water. Mix these well together with a little salt, which will be increased in quantity if the batter is to be used for meat or vegetables. According to the purpose to be served, some part of the water may be replaced by milk, by wine, by brandy, or by beer. In the German batter there is beer. Whether yolks of eggs should be added is a moot point. For a rich cream add two yolks, Bavarois but also in this case add somewhat to the quantity of water, and indeed it must be remembered as modifying the above measurements that some kinds of flour require more water than others. Work the mixture perfectly smooth. When wanted for the fire add to it two or three whites of eggs which have been whisked into a firm froth.
Italian Batter. The peculiarity of this is that there is no water in it and no butter. The liquid part is formed of oil, of yolks of eggs, and of milk. Those who are disposed to play pranks may leave out the milk and put white wine or cider instead. The batter is finished as usual with frothed whites of eggs.
Batter Pudding. - There are several varieties of it-as the Batter Pudding, the Hasty Pudding, and the Yorkshire Pudding; but none is to be commended except the last.
BAVAROIS-Bavarian cheese. Boil as much of the best milk as will half fill the mould or moulds to be used. Sugar it, and add whatever flavour may be chosen-coffee, vanilla, fruit syrups, or aught else. Mix in (say for a quart of milk) eight yolks of eggs; and let the mixture thicken with a low heat on the corner of the stove, stirring it well. Add an ounce of dissolved isinglass; then pass it through a tammy and let it cool. Being cool, it is to be mixed well with some whipt cream, poured as swiftly as possible into a mould which has been rubbed with oil of sweet almonds, and given over to the ice-box. Above all things let there be no delay between the mixing in of the whipt cream and the chilling with ice. It will take an hour and a half for the cheese to set well, and then it can be turned out.
Two separate preparations sit under one heading here: a frying batter given as a ratio rather than a formula, and a bavarois, which is a custard set with gelatine and lightened with cream. Both are workable as written, with a few translations.
- The ratio is the recipeEqual weights of flour and total liquid, with the liquid part butter and part water: 10 oz flour, 2 oz melted butter, 8 oz water. Because it is by weight, 8 oz of water is 1 cup in modern terms, and the whole thing scales freely.
- "Half a pint (eight ounces)"His own equation does not match the imperial half-pint, which is 10 fluid ounces and also weighs about 10 ounces. Whatever the reason for the discrepancy, take him at his parenthesis and use eight ounces of water.
- Flour absorbencyThe warning that some flours take more water than others still holds, more so now. Aim for a batter that coats a spoon and falls in a thick ribbon; adjust with water rather than flour.
- Whites at the last momentThe frothed whites go in only "when wanted for the fire." Fold them in gently and fry immediately; a batter that stands loses its lift and fries flat and greasy.
- Frying temperatureNo temperature is given because he assumed a judged fat. Use 350-375F for fritters and vegetables; below that the batter absorbs fat, above it the coating colours before the interior cooks.
- IsinglassIsinglass is fish-swim-bladder gelatine and is not a supermarket item. One ounce of it for a quart of milk is a stiff set by modern standards; ordinary powdered or leaf gelatine substitutes, bloomed and dissolved in a little warm milk. Do not convert the ounce of isinglass directly, as the two differ in setting strength; follow the gelatine packet's guidance for a firm mould that will turn out.
- Thickening the custard"A low heat on the corner of the stove" means a custard cooked to about 175-180F, thick enough to coat the spoon and no further. Eight yolks per quart is a rich anglaise; it will curdle if it simmers.
- Tammy and mouldA tammy is a fine cloth strainer; a fine mesh sieve does the same work. Oil of sweet almonds is a bland fixed oil used to line the mould, not almond extract and not bitter almond; any neutral oil serves the same purpose.
- Why the haste mattersThe instruction to lose no time between folding in the whipped cream and chilling is the hinge. The gelatine is already setting as the mixture cools, and any delay leaves you pouring a mixture that has begun to seize, which sets streaked and turns out badly.
- YieldA quart of milk plus whipped cream fills a mould of about two quarts and serves eight to ten. Ninety minutes is optimistic for a full-size mould; several hours in the refrigerator is safer, and dipping the mould briefly in warm water helps it release.
Kettner's Book of the Table (1877) took its name from Auguste Kettner's Soho restaurant and was written, anonymously, by the journalist E. S. Dallas; it is arranged as an alphabetical dictionary, which is why batter, batter pudding and bavarois collide in a single entry. The bavarois, or Bavarian cream, is a cold moulded custard that entered the French repertoire in the early nineteenth century and whose connection with Bavaria is traditional rather than documented — Carême gives several versions and treats the name as already established. Dallas calls it a "cheese" because these gelatine-set moulds descend from the older family of fromages and creams turned out of a shape, food shaped in a mould being reckoned a cheese regardless of whether any cheese was involved. His flat verdict that of the batter puddings "none is to be commended except the last" is characteristic of the book, which is as much opinion as instruction and much the better reading for it.