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Orange Fritters
1 pint of milk 4 ounces flour 2 tablespoons sugar 2 sweet oranges Few drops vanilla essence Mix the flour with a little of the cold milk, put the remainder of the milk into a double saucepan, and when nearly boiling, add the flour and the milk; when thickened strain well, and put back into the saucepan to obtain the right consistency; add the sugar and essence of vanilla.
Peel the oranges, divide into sections, remove the white skin, and pits, and cook in half a pint of water and four ounces of sugar for about ten minutes; then take up, and drain on a sieve. Drop the orange sections into the above batter, mixing the whole carefully. Fry the fritters in hot butter or oil, taking each orange section up with a spoon, with ample batter to well cover it, and so dropping it to the fat. Do not fry too many at a time. When of a golden color take them up, and drain well on a paper or a cloth. Dredge with icing sugar, and serve plain or with an orange flavored syrup. These are also used to garnish a rice or vermicelli mold.
This is not a batter in the modern sense but a thick milk panada — essentially a flour-set pastry cream — used as a coating. Understanding that changes how you handle every step.
- The hinge: cool the panadaWarm, the mixture slides off the fruit and disperses in the fat. Spread it in a shallow dish, cover, and chill until it is stiff enough to hold a spoon upright; then it will cling to each section as the recipe intends.
- Measurements in modern terms1 pint of milk is 2 cups if the pint is American, 2½ cups if imperial; the book's British usage makes the larger measure possible. 4 ounces of flour is a scant 1 cup, so weigh it if you can. The second 4 ounces of sugar for the poaching syrup is a generous ½ cup, with the half pint of water making 1 to 1¼ cups.
- Double saucepanA double boiler, or a heatproof bowl over simmering water. The gentle heat is there to stop the flour paste scorching; a heavy saucepan over low heat and constant whisking does the same job faster.
- Strain, then thicken againThe recipe strains the mixture and returns it to the pan 'to obtain the right consistency': straining removes lumps, and the further cooking brings it back to a stiff, spoon-coating paste. Judge it by consistency rather than by the clock.
- Essence of vanillaVanilla extract. A few drops means just that: something under ¼ teaspoon.
- Poaching and drying the orangesTen minutes in syrup is enough for segments to firm slightly without collapsing. Drain them well and blot them dry — surface syrup is the main reason the coating slips off and the fat spits.
- Frying fat and temperatureWhole butter burns well below frying heat. Use a neutral oil or clarified butter at 350–360°F, and fry in small batches so the temperature holds, taking them up when golden as the recipe directs.
- Icing sugar and yieldIcing sugar is confectioners' or powdered sugar. Two oranges give roughly 20–24 segments, enough for four servings; serve at once, as the coating softens as it stands.
Fried fruit in a thick milk-and-flour coating belongs to a long European tradition of fritters made from a cooked panada rather than a liquid batter — the same technique behind Italian crema fritta, where the set custard itself is cut and fried. Here oranges are the substance of the dish rather than a flavouring. The closing note about garnishing a rice or vermicelli mould shows how one preparation was expected to serve more than one dish.