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Fritter Batter
1 1/2 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking-powder 1 egg 2/3 cup milk 2 tablespoons powdered sugar (for sweet fritters only) Sift dry ingredients, add egg, well beaten, and milk. The batter should be thick enough to completely coat the article it is intended to cover. If too thin, add more flour. If too thick, add more liquid.
A plain all-purpose coating batter from the 1920s, meant to be mixed to a consistency rather than to an exact measure. A few notes on how it behaves in a modern kitchen.
- Consistency is the whole recipeThe stated cup measures are a starting point only; flour absorbency varies. Aim for a batter that falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon and clings to a dipped piece of fruit or meat without sliding off.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe gives no frying instruction at all. Fritters are generally fried at about 365-375F: below that the batter soaks up grease; much above it and the coating colours before the filling heats through.
- Mix brieflyBeat only until the flour disappears. Overworking develops gluten and gives a tough, bready crust rather than a crisp one.
- Rest or use at onceBaking powder begins working on contact with the milk. Either fry immediately for maximum lift, or accept a slightly denser coating if the batter stands more than 20 minutes.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term usually meant finely ground granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-blended confectioners' sugar sold today. Either works here; ordinary granulated sugar is the closer match.
- Dry the food firstBlot fruit slices, oysters or croquettes on a towel before dipping. A wet surface makes the batter slip off in the fat.
- YieldThe recipe states no yield; expect roughly 1 3/4 to 2 cups of batter, the amount needed depending entirely on how thickly the pieces are coated.
The single formula serving both savoury and sweet, with sugar added only in the second case, is typical of American cookbooks from the turn of the century through the 1920s, which favoured one adaptable base over a page of near-identical variants; such a batter was a standard vehicle for leftovers, since cold cooked meat, corn, oysters or fruit could be cut up, coated and fried into something that read as a new dish at the table. The Delineator was a Butterick pattern magazine whose cookery pages were aimed squarely at households where economy and appearances both mattered, and a batter that turns yesterday's remnants into a hot fried course suited that readership.