Home › Recipes › Transparent Fritters
Transparent Fritters
Crisp. White. Good to use up whites of eggs left out of muffins, custard, etc., wherein they do no good. Serve with red wine sauce, or lemon juice and sugar. 1/2 pint of milk, or water. 3 ounces of butter, or lard. 3 ounces of corn starch. 1/2 pound of white of eggs (9 whites).
Make as directed for other starch fritters. Fry slowly. If the batter is beaten too much after the whites are all in, the fritters are liable to explode when near done. (They never explode on the table--no danger.) We now come to cheese puffs and creams. In the great majority of instances when anything made with cheese appears in a bill of fare, the kind named is Parmesan. Besides this, the cook is directed to use various other foreign cheeses, according to what the purpose may be. In Italian cookery, one writer observes, "several varieties of cheese are much employed: such as the cheese of Switzerland and Savoy, under different names; and Parmesan (named from Parma), though it is made in all the north of Italy, and particularly in Lombardy. Gruyere cheese is, however, most used throughout Europe; Parmesan is twice or thrice the price out of Italy. In Italy, a plateful of grated cheese is mostly served with the soup, when each guest takes what he likes and mixes it on his own plate."
Another writer says: "My friends had two surprises of which I myself had not thought--Parmesan served with the soupe, and a glass of dry madeira after. These were two novelties lately imported (into France) by Prince Talleyrand, the first of our diplomatists, to whom we owe so many wise and witty sayings, etc."
Every well regulated hotel storeroom of course has all the different varieties of cheese on shelf, properly labeled, so that the cook can have all the world before him where to choose. But those who live where it is found difficult to obtain anything but American cheese, if they have not already read it, will be gratified and interested in reading the following, from "Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving." "Among the best cheeses of England are the Stilton and Cheshire; of France, are those of Neufchatel Brie and Roquefort. The Iromage de Roquefort is, perhaps, one of the most popular of all cheeses. The Gruyere cheese of Switzerland is also a well known cheese. It is made from new milk, and flavored with a powdered herb. The Roquefort cheese is made of a mixture of sheep's and goat's milk. The Parmesan (an Italian cheese) is made of skimmed milk. It is a high-flavored and hard cheese, and is not sent to market until it is six months old, and is often kept three or four years. It is extensively used, grated, for cooking.
Our American cheeses, since the introduction of the factory system, are exported in immense quantities to England, where they are much ought for, and considered by epicures as great luxuries. This is generally astonishing to Americans abroad, who, at home, often consider it only in rule to offer guests cheese of foreign manufacture.
Perhaps the cheapest of the foreign famous cheeses is the Neufchatel. It comes in little rolls about an inch thick and three inches long, is enveloped in tinfoil and costs about twenty cents a roll.
The tariff may be saved by purchasing the Neufchatel manufactured in New Jersey and Westchester County, New York. As for that, the Stilton made in Cayuga county can hardly be dected from the Leicestershire manufacture itself; and in fact, nearly all the famous cheeses are very perfectly imitated in America, so that those who choose may indulge in foreign names and encourage home manufacture at the same time."
The moral to be drawn from the preceding extract is that for cooking purposes at least; American cheese will do very well, even for dishes au Parmesan, or a la Parmesane.