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Hardshell Fritters
1 pint of water. 1/2 pound of flour. 4, 5, or 6 eggs. Slight seasoning of salt.
Bring the water to a boil in a bowl-shaped saucepan of good size; drop in the flour all at once and stir to a firm, smooth paste, which will require about five minutes over the fire. Then take it off and, after letting it stand a few minutes, work in the eggs one at a time with a large spoon. Beat the paste up against the side for at least five minutes. It does no harm to let the paste stand an hour or two before frying, after it is made, but it must not be allowed to get cold before the eggs are beaten in. Set on an iron frying kettle half filled with clarified meat fat, and when that is hot drop in pieces of the paste about as large as guinea eggs. Only a few at a time. When done, take up with a skimmer; drain on a colander or seive; serve with syrup. Makes twenty-five.
This is a choux paste — the same dough as cream puffs and éclairs — deep fried rather than baked, which is what gives the "hard shell" of the title. The instructions are sound; only the units, the fat and the frying temperature need translating.
- The measurements1 pint of water is 2 cups (475 ml); 1/2 pound of flour is roughly 1 3/4 cups by modern scoop, though weighing it is more reliable. At two parts water to one part flour by weight the proportion is wetter than many modern choux recipes, so expect a slack paste.
- How many eggsThe recipe allows "4, 5, or 6" and leaves the number to the cook; egg size was not standardised. Work them in one at a time and stop when the paste falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon and a furrow drawn through it closes slowly.
- The hingeDry the paste properly over the heat — the full five minutes, stirring, until it films the bottom of the pan — and beat the eggs in while it is still warm. Cold paste will not take up the eggs smoothly, and an underdried paste makes a fritter that collapses instead of holding its shell.
- BeatingFive minutes of beating against the side of the pan is not padding. It develops the paste so it puffs. A stand mixer with the paddle does the same work in two to three minutes on medium.
- Clarified meat fatThis means rendered beef suet or lard, clarified of water and solids so it will not spit or smoke. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point works the same way; the fat needs to be a good four inches deep so the fritters can turn.
- Frying temperatureThe book only says "when that is hot." Aim for 350–360°F. Hotter than that and the shell sets before the inside cooks, leaving raw paste in the middle; cooler and the fritters soak fat. They should take five to seven minutes and turn themselves as they puff.
- "As large as guinea eggs"A guinea fowl egg is smaller than a hen's, so roughly two tablespoons of paste, which is consistent with the stated yield of twenty-five. They swell in the fat, which is why the recipe insists on only a few at a time.
- Yield and servingTwenty-five fritters, so six to eight as a dessert. The recipe says only "syrup" and does not specify which; they are equally good rolled in cinnamon sugar while hot. Eat them the day they are fried -- the shell softens within hours.
Fried choux under one name or another turns up across Europe and America: beignets soufflés and pets de nonne in France, zeppole in southern Italy. The name here describes the result rather than any tradition — the steam that inflates the paste in the fat leaves a hollow interior inside a crisp, brittle wall, which distinguishes them from the dense batter fritters made with baking powder. That the source gives the egg count as a range rather than a number says a good deal about the period: eggs were sold by the dozen, not by weight, and a cook was expected to judge the paste by eye and spoon. The instruction that the paste may stand an hour or two before frying is a working baker's note, aimed at someone making other things at the same time.