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Corn Fritters
1/2 cup milk 2 cups cooked corn 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/3 teaspoon pepper 2 teaspoons Royal Baking Powder 1 tablespoon shortening 2 eggs Add milk to corn; add flour sifted with salt, pepper and baking powder; add melted shortening and beaten eggs; beat well. Fry by spoonfuls on hot greased griddle or iron frying pan.
For corn fritters that are to be fried in deep fat make batter stiffer by adding 1/2 cup flour and 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder; beat well. Drop by spoonfuls into deep hot fat.
A straightforward baking-powder batter from a Royal Baking Powder promotional book, written when "shortening" still meant whatever fat was on hand. A few points on quantities and frying.
- Cooked cornTwo cups means drained kernels, not creamed corn. Fresh kernels cut from about four ears, or frozen corn thawed and patted dry, both work; canned corn should be drained well or the batter will slacken.
- ShorteningOne tablespoon of any neutral fat — melted butter, vegetable oil or lard. The book's own "shortening" would have been lard or a hydrogenated vegetable fat; nothing here depends on which.
- Baking powderRoyal was a single-acting cream-of-tartar powder; modern double-acting powder holds more of its lift back until heated, so 2 teaspoons for 1 1/2 cups flour is on the generous side but not wrong. Better not to let the batter stand long before frying.
- Griddle heatMedium, around 375F, with a thin film of fat. Spoonfuls about 2 tablespoons each spread to roughly 3 inches; two to three minutes a side until set through, since the corn holds moisture and a browned outside can still hide raw batter.
- Deep fatThe stiffer version needs oil at 365-375F. Any cooler and the fritters absorb fat; much hotter and the outsides colour before the centres cook. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash, and drain on a rack rather than paper for a crisper crust.
- Pepper1/3 teaspoon is an awkward measure by modern standards; a scant third of a spoonful, or a generous pinch, and adjust.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; at roughly 2 tablespoons of batter each it makes upwards of two dozen griddle fritters, more if dropped smaller into deep fat. Good with syrup or as a side to ham or fried chicken.
The New Royal Cook Book was one of a long series of pamphlets issued by the Royal Baking Powder Company, which named its own product in the recipes calling for leavening — the recipes are genuine and workable, but they exist to sell cream-of-tartar baking powder. Corn fritters themselves are older than any commercial leavening: batter-bound cooked corn appears in American cookery through the nineteenth century, generally raised with beaten eggs alone, and the swap to chemical leavening is exactly the change these booklets were promoting. The double instruction here, one batter for the griddle and a stiffer one for the kettle, reflects the different demands of the two frying methods.