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Cream Fritters
One cup of cream; whites of five eggs well-beaten; two cups of flour; pinch of salt; flavor with nutmeg; stir with whites into the cream, add the flour, nutmeg and salt, and beat thoroughly a few minutes. This makes a thick batter. Drop a spoonful at a time in hot fat. Drain and serve with jelly or sauce.
A leavening-free fritter batter that depends entirely on beaten egg whites for lift, which puts the whole recipe on the knife edge between two of its own instructions.
- The hinge: how much you beatThe recipe says to beat the finished batter thoroughly for a few minutes, but there is no baking powder here — the whites are the only leavening. Fold the flour in until barely combined; sustained beating collapses the foam and gives you dense, greasy lumps.
- What "cream" means hereUnqualified "cream" in books of this period generally meant something thinner than modern heavy cream, nearer what we would call light or single cream. Heavy cream will make a stiffer, richer batter; whole milk thinned with a spoonful of cream is probably closer to the original consistency.
- Flour measurementPeriod flour was often softer than modern all-purpose, and measuring practice varied from book to book, so two cups then may not equal two cups now. Start with about 1 1/2 cups and add more only if the batter will not hold its shape on the spoon.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe says only "hot fat." A modern working range for fritters of this kind is roughly 365-375F: below that they absorb grease, above it they brown before the centre sets, and a thick batter needs enough time — a few minutes, turning once — for the interior to cook.
- Depth of fatDropped-batter fritters like this work best in deep fat, a couple of inches at least, so the spoonfuls float. A shallow pan gives flat-bottomed fritters with a raw seam.
- NutmegGrate it fresh; a quarter teaspoon is plenty for this quantity. Pre-ground nutmeg from a jar is flat and will not carry against the fried batter.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; a batter of this size should make roughly a dozen and a half small fritters. Drain on a rack rather than paper so the undersides stay crisp, dust with sugar if the accompanying jelly is tart, and serve within minutes — they deflate as they cool.
Fritters of this type — a thick, egg-white-lightened batter dropped by spoonfuls into deep fat — were a familiar sort of nineteenth-century American sweet. The name "cream fritter" is doing double duty in period cookbooks: sometimes it means a fritter made with cream, as here, and sometimes a slab of thick pastry cream breaded and fried, closer to the Italian crema fritta. Its filing under Sauces in The Butterick Cook Book is curious; the closing instruction to serve with jelly or sauce is the only thing tying it to the chapter it landed in.