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Bread Doughnuts
Only plain dough, or French roll dough. Cut out biscuit shapes, let rise, and fry. These are very often found at railroad lunch stands; nearly as cheap as bread and butter, and very saleable.
There is a suspicion of tautology in the direction sometimes given to fry in hot lard; however, that is the shortest way of saying the lard should be already hot.
This is a baker's shortcut rather than a formula: it assumes you already have bread dough proofing on the bench. Everything that matters happens at the fryer.
- What the dough is"Plain dough" is presumably the shop's standard white bread dough; "French roll dough" would have been a slightly richer version, with a little butter, sugar and sometimes egg or milk, though the book defines neither. Any lean or lightly enriched white bread dough that has had its first rise will do.
- Cutting biscuit shapesThe book says only "biscuit shapes"; in practice roll the dough about half an inch thick and cut with a plain round cutter of two and a half to three inches. Nothing in the text indicates a hole; if you add one with a small cutter the rounds cook more evenly.
- The second rise"Let rise" means proof the cut rounds on a floured board or cloth until light and visibly puffed, roughly 30 to 45 minutes at warm room temperature. Underproofed rounds come out dense and greasy; overproofed ones collapse when they hit the fat.
- Fat temperatureThe joke about "hot lard" is the one instruction that counts. Hold the fat at 360-375F. Below that the dough absorbs fat and turns heavy; much above it and the outside colours before the inside sets. Lard is what the book intends; a neutral high-smoke-point oil or shortening behaves the same way.
- Frying and turningYeast-raised doughnuts float and cook fast, about 60 to 90 seconds a side. Slide them in proofed side down and turn once when the underside is deep gold. Drain on a rack rather than paper so the crust stays crisp.
- FinishingThe text gives none; nothing tells us how they were sold. Sugar, cinnamon sugar or a thin glaze all suit them, and are best applied while the doughnuts are still warm.
- YieldThe book gives no quantities or yield; as a rough guide, dough made from two pounds of flour would cut into something like two dozen three-inch doughnuts. They stale within hours, as bread does, and are best eaten the day they are fried.
Doughnuts split early into two families: the chemically leavened cake doughnut, raised with saleratus or baking powder and mixed like a stiff batter, and the yeast-raised sort that is simply bread dough sent through the fryer instead of the oven. This recipe belongs to the second, and is really a note on shop economy rather than a formula, which is why it takes barely three lines. A bakery already running bread dough could divert a portion of it, cut, proof and fry it, and sell the result. The reference to railroad lunch stands suggests the setting: American rail travel meant passengers ate at trackside counters during scheduled stops, where food had to be cheap, portable and eaten standing. The aside about "hot lard" is the author enjoying himself at the expense of the recipe writers of his day.