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Rice Fritters
1 large C boiled rice 2 eggs 1 C flour 1 t baking powder Salt (Add a little more flour, if necessary) Cook by spoonfuls in hot fat. Sift powdered sugar over and serve very hot.
Mrs. W. J. Dillon. 1 C flour 1 C milk 2 eggs
A church-supper fritter that turns leftover rice into something worth serving hot with sugar. The instructions are terse even by community-cookbook standards, so a few gaps need filling.
- The stray ingredient listThe trailing "1 C flour, 1 C milk, 2 eggs" is almost certainly type from an adjacent recipe that bled into this one during printing or transcription. Ignore it; the fritters need no milk, and the rice supplies the moisture.
- AbbreviationsC is cup, t is teaspoon. "1 large C boiled rice" means a generously filled cup, on the order of 6 to 7 ounces of cooked, cooled rice.
- The rice matters mostUse rice that is fully cooked, cold and on the dry side. Warm or wet rice slackens the batter and the spoonfuls will spread and fall apart in the fat rather than holding a ball.
- Fat and temperature"Hot fat" is unspecified as to depth; spoonfuls could be shallow- or deep-fried in lard or another cooking fat. Fritters of this type are usually fried in the region of 365 to 375F: cooler and they absorb grease, much hotter and the outside colors before the eggy center sets.
- Size and timingDrop rounded tablespoonfuls, four or five at a time so the temperature holds. They take about 3 to 4 minutes total, turning once, and are done when deep gold all over. Break one open on the first batch to check the center.
- SaltNo quantity is given. About a quarter teaspoon for the whole batch is right for a sweet fritter dusted with sugar.
- Yield and servingAbout 16 to 18 fritters, enough for four to six. Drain briefly on paper, sift powdered sugar over at the last moment, and serve immediately; the sugar dissolves and the crust softens within minutes.
Rice fritters belong to a long tradition of thrift cookery in which yesterday's boiled rice, pudding or porridge is bound with egg and flour and fried into something that reads as a treat. The Libertyville Presbyterian book is a subscription cookbook of the sort American churches produced in large numbers from the 1870s onward: members contributed a favorite dish under their own names, the proceeds went to a church fund, and the recipes were generally printed much as submitted. Mrs. W. J. Dillon was writing for neighbors who could be assumed to know what hot fat looked like and how much salt a fritter wanted, which may account for the brevity.