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Corn Fritters
2 CUPS CANNED CORN 1/2 TEASPOON SALT (STEWED VARIETY) CRACKER CRUMBS TO THICKEN (ABOUT I CUP) Add a little milk to the eggs-beat and add to the corn and thicken with cracker crumbs to the consistency of dough. Fry.
A camp-style fritter batter built on canned corn and cracker crumbs rather than flour, which makes it fast and forgiving over an outdoor fire. The list omits the eggs the method calls for; two large eggs suit two cups of corn.
- Consistency is the hingeAdd the cracker crumbs gradually until the mixture just holds a spoon shape. Too wet and the fritters spread and absorb fat; too dry and they turn dense and pasty.
- "Stewed variety" canned cornProbably a softer, liquid-packed corn rather than the drained whole-kernel product; the recipe gives no further detail. If using whole kernels, add a few spoonfuls of their liquid or milk to make up the difference.
- Cracker crumbsPlain soda crackers or saltines, crushed fine. Salt content varies from brand to brand, so hold back some of the half teaspoon of salt until you have fried a test fritter and tasted it.
- Milk quantity"a little milk" is unmeasured; a couple of tablespoons is enough to loosen the beaten eggs before they go into the corn.
- FryingShallow-fry in about a quarter inch of fat at 350-360F, dropping the batter by heaped tablespoons. Two to three minutes a side gives a set centre; corn batter thickened with crumbs browns before it cooks through if the fat is too hot.
- Over a camp fireIf cooking over a fire -- work over coals rather than flame so the pan holds a steady heat, and test one fritter first. A skillet that has been sitting on open flame will be far above frying temperature.
- YieldAbout twelve to fourteen fritters, serving four as a side dish. Best eaten straight from the pan; they soften as they sit.
Corn fritters belong to a long American line of griddle and skillet cakes built on maize, and by the early twentieth century canned corn had made them a year-round dish rather than a late-summer one. Cracker crumbs stand in for flour as binder and thickener here, a substitution common wherever crackers were the staple on hand. If the recipe comes from a camp cookery collection, that would fit its shape: a handful of shelf-stable ingredients, a single pan, and measurements loose enough that a cook had to judge the batter by feel.