Fritters
1. Simple Fritters. - Take some batter, for which see the receipt. Add a little sugar to it, and profoundly weigh whether yolks of eggs should enter into it or not. Better say yes, although the use of yolks tells with more distinct effect in the custard fritter. Drop this in spoonfuls into the frying-kettle, and serve them with sprinkled sugar. 2. Custard Fritters. - Make a good custard, and steam it in a pudding-dish which has been first rubbed with butter. When it is done, let it cool, cut it into squares, dip them in the batter, and fry them. They are excellent by themselves, but they may be served in a dish with jam or fruit syrup round them. 3. Pudding Fritters. The remains of any kind of pudding, not forgetting plum-pudding, may be served in the same way with excellent effect. 4. Fruit Fritters. For these the chief fruits used are apples, oranges, peaches, or pineapples. The apples and oranges are usually steeped in a little brandy and sugar for an hour beforehand. The peaches and pineapples may go into Kirschenwasser and sugar. Needless to say anything about peeling, trimming, and cutting. Dip the fruit into the batter (in which, however, there should not be any yolks), and fry it as before, dropping spoonfuls of combined fruit and batter into the kettle. 5. Balloon Fritters (Beignets Soufflés). - For this there is a little difference in the way of preparing the batter. Fritters Take as for ordinary batter equal quantities of solid and liquid-say, half a pound of flour as against half a pint of water; and take three eggs and an ounce of sugar as against four ounces of butter. Put the water, butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan on the fire, and as soon as it boils dredge in the flour and stir it over the fire for four or five minutes. When it is removed from the fire put in a few drops of flavouring essence-as orange or almond, lemon or vanilla-or do without flavouring altogether. The three eggs are next to be broken into it and carefully mixed-one at a time. The paste should be stiff enough now to hold together; but if too stiff, break another egg into it, or half one. Make round balls the size of small walnuts, and put them on strips of buttered paper. Dip them into the frying-kettle, holding on by the strip of paper, from which the balls will soon detach themselves. As the balls are frying move them about in the kettle till they reach a fine colour and puff well out. Then drain them, sprinkle them with sugar, and serve them on a napkin. 6. Brioche Fritters. - Take paste No. 9, using half the quantity of butter, and milk instead of water. Cool it on ice, and then roll it out thin. With a paste-cutter make circles about two inches in diameter. Put a small spoonful of apricot or other jam upon each; purse it up like a little dumpling, and drop it for ten minutes into hot fat. This is the German fashion-the dainty being of German origin. Always on New Year's Eve, or St. Silvester's night as it is called, these fritters are eaten throughout Deutschland. Marie Antoinette brought the remembrance of them with her from Vienna to Paris, and instructed the French cooks to make them for her, she being then the Dauphiness. They cut the paste as follows :- With an inch-and-a-half cutter they made circles, upon which they dropped the apricot jam-not much-the size of a cobnut. With a two-inch cutter they made larger circles, which they placed above the jam. They Frying pinched round the edges, and then set them to swim for five or six minutes on the one side, then for five or six minutes on the other in the hot fat. They were afterwards drained, sprinkled with sugar, piled on a napkin, and dubbed Beignets à la Dauphine. The German names are -at Vienna, Wiener Krapfen; and at Berlin, Berliner Pfannkuchen.
FROGS are at their best in the spring, and therefore it is only in Lent that they are to be seen at Parisian tables. The hind-legs alone are eaten. They are skinned, they are blanched, they are boiled, and they are served either with a poulette sauce or fried in butter. The French have a theory that frogs, having a mighty power of croaking, are good for the chest and sovereign over a cough. Their final cause in fact is the cure of the consumptive.