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French Frying Batter
Fine for pine apple and orange fritters, scollops, oysters, frogs, etc. 12 ounces of flour. 12 whites of eggs--1/2 pint. 3 ounces of olive oil--6 large tablespoonfuls 3 ounces of white wine or sherry. Salt, orange or lemon zest if for fruit fritters.
Whip the whites firm in a bowl, pour in the oil and wine, then add the flour by shaking in a little at a time. Stir till well mixed, use immediately. When this has lost its first lightness by standing in a warm place a pinch of baking powder beaten in improves it.
A whites-only frying batter of the sort a hotel pastry department kept going through service. The weights convert cleanly, and the instruction that matters is the last one in the mixing order.
- The hinge: fold, don't beatThe hinge: add the flour gradually -- The whites carry all the lift, so the flour must be shaken in a little at a time. The recipe says to stir till well mixed, not to fold, but it should be worked no further than that: heavy beating knocks the air out and gives a heavy, bready crust.
- Flour by weight12 ounces is about 2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled. Weigh it if you can; a packed cup measure here will thicken the batter past the point where it will coat thinly.
- Twelve whites, half a pintThe book's own equivalent is the useful one: 1 cup of egg whites, which in modern large eggs is 8 to 10 whites rather than 12. Measure to the cup instead of counting.
- Oil and wine3 ounces each is 6 tablespoons, as stated. Use a mild olive oil rather than a peppery finishing oil, and a dry white wine or dry sherry -- cream sherry will brown the coating too fast.
- Frying temperatureThe original assumes a deep kettle of fat judged by eye. Hold 360-375F; below that the batter absorbs fat and slumps, above it the egg white colours before the interior sets.
- Oysters and scallopsThese want only long enough for the coating to set and colour, roughly 1 to 2 minutes. Frying them longer turns them rubbery and weeps liquid into the crust.
- Frogs' legsSold frozen at many fish counters; a pair of legs fries in about 3 minutes. Buy farmed legs rather than wild-caught, which are regulated differently from place to place.
- Standing and rescueThe pinch of baking powder is a repair for a batter that has been sitting, not part of the original mix. Better to make the batter in the quantity you need and use it within about 20 minutes.
- YieldAs written this makes a large working batch -- enough to coat roughly 4 to 5 pounds of fruit or shellfish. Quartering it is reasonable for home use.
Batters raised with beaten egg white -- one of the forms of what French kitchens called a pte à frire, the general term for a frying batter, others being raised with beer or yeast -- have a long history in professional cooking. The wine does double duty, thinning the batter and helping it brown, while the oil keeps the coating tender rather than crisp-hard. That the same batter is offered for pineapple fritters and for oysters is suggestive: one preparation served both the sweet and savoury sides of a long menu. The list of what it coats -- scallops, oysters, frogs -- reflects a restaurant repertoire in which frogs' legs were an unremarkable item rather than a curiosity.