Fritter Batter

This is a bare-bones batter written for a cook who already knew the proportions, and as printed it is incomplete — the flour never made it onto the ingredient line. A few notes before you mix.

• The missing flour"Mix the dry ingredients" implies flour and salt that the list omits. For 1/2 cup milk, 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons baking powder, about 1 cup of flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt gives a coating batter of the right thickness; this is an inference from the liquid, not something the original states.
• Too much baking powder for the flourBaking powder -- Two teaspoons to a cup of flour is high by modern standards, where 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons per cup is more usual — though the cup of flour is itself an inference here. Period baking powders varied in strength and composition, so reduce it if you find a metallic aftertaste.
• Order of mixingThe beaten eggs go in last, which may be meant to keep some of the air beaten into them; the recipe does not say why. Fold rather than beat once the eggs go in, and stop while the batter still looks slightly lumpy.
• Olive oilOlive oil in this period was commonly sold in drugstores for medicinal use as well as for cooking, and was generally milder than a modern peppery extra-virgin, which will assert itself in a delicate fritter; use a light olive oil or a neutral oil instead. The recipe specifies no grade.
• ConsistencyIt should coat the back of a spoon and drip slowly, not pour. Vegetables that are wet — squash, tomato, cooked greens — will thin it in the bowl, so mix a shade thick and dry the vegetables first.
• Frying temperatureThe book gives none. Fry at 365-375F: cooler and the batter drinks fat, hotter and the coating colours before the vegetable inside is done. Fry in small batches so the oil does not crash.
• YieldEnough to coat roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb of prepared vegetables, depending on how much flour you add. Use it promptly, while the baking powder is still active.