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Cauliflower Fritters
Cold cooked cauliflower Sprinkle pieces of Salt and pepper Batter V cauliflower with salt and pepper and dip in Batter I or V. Fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper.
A cross-referenced scrap of a recipe, of the kind Farmer used to stretch leftovers: it assumes you already have cooked cauliflower in the icebox and a batter recipe elsewhere in the book. The points below fill in what the page leaves out.
- The batter is the missing halfBatter I and Batter V are numbered entries elsewhere in the book; the page gives you neither. A typical fritter batter of the period runs to something like 1 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup milk or water and 1 egg, with heavier versions using whole egg and lighter ones folding in stiffly beaten whites just before frying — but check the book's own Batter I and V rather than relying on this.
- Dry the cauliflower firstThis is the hinge. Cold boiled cauliflower holds water in its florets, and wet surfaces shed batter into the fat. Blot each piece thoroughly and season it before dipping, as the recipe directs.
- Fat temperature"Deep fat" of this period usually meant lard or a rendered fat, judged by dropping in a cube of bread rather than by thermometer. In modern terms around 375F works; the fritters need roughly 2 to 3 minutes to colour, since the cauliflower is already cooked and only needs heating through.
- Brown paperUnprinted grocery paper was the standard drainer. Paper towels on a rack do the same job, and a rack alone keeps the undersides crisper.
- Piece sizeBreak the head into florets of roughly a walnut's size. Large pieces heat unevenly and the batter darkens before the centre is warm.
- Yield and servingThe recipe specifies no quantity; a head of cauliflower will make a dish for several, served as an entrée in the period sense of a made dish between courses. Serve immediately, with a tomato or cheese sauce if you want them to carry a plate.
Fannie Farmer's fritter chapter is a piece of household economics as much as cookery: the entrées section of the 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book is full of instructions that begin "cold cooked" something, turning the remains of a boiled dinner into a dish that could be sent to table in its own right. Farmer's insistence on testing fat with a bread cube belongs to the same instinct for measurement that made her book famous. The cross-reference style — "dip in Batter I or V" — reflects how the book was meant to be used: not as a collection of standalone pages but as a system, with basic preparations numbered once and called on repeatedly.