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Fritter Batter
Sift one and one-half cups flour with onefourth teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of baking powder, and add gradually two-thirds cup of milk and one egg well beaten. For sweet fritters add two tablespoons of powdered sugar. A tablespoon of sherry or brandy is also liked by some. The batter when made should be thick enough to completely coat the article it is intended to cover. If too thin add more flour. If too thick, add the white of another egg.
CORN FRITTERS, No. I-One pint of grated corn; one-half cup of milk; two-thirds teaspoon of salt; one-eighth teaspoon of pepper; one egg; one teaspoon of melted butter; two teaspoons of baking powder and flour to thicken. Grate the corn, add the salt, pepper and melted butter, then the beaten egg and the milk. Add flour until the track made by the spoon in stirring is not lost in the batter, then add the baking powder and fry by the spoonful in boiling hot fat. Drain on paper and serve hot.
CORN FRITTERS, No. 2-One can of corn; one egg; one-half cup of milk; one teaspoon of salt; two cups of flour; one teaspoon of butter (melted); one teaspoon of baking powder; one-eighth teaspoon of pepper. Chop the corn up very fine in a chopping bowl, add the salt and pepper, then the egg beaten well, then the butter, milk and flour. When smooth add the baking powder and fry by the spoonful in a frying-pan in plenty of boiling hot fat. The fat should be quite ready to use before the baking powder is added.
A general coating batter plus two corn fritter variations. The one line to obey is the last one: the baking powder goes in only when the fat is already at temperature, because the leavening starts working the moment it meets wet batter.
- "Boiling hot fat"Fat at frying heat is not actually boiling; the phrase means deep-frying temperature, conventionally reckoned today at about 365-375F. Cooler than that and the fritters absorb grease; hotter and the outside colors before the batter inside sets.
- Baking powder lastBoth corn fritter recipes deliberately hold the baking powder back until frying time. Mix the batter, heat the fat, then stir in the powder and start dropping spoonfuls immediately.
- Batter thicknessThe test given for No. 1 is sound and worth using for all of them: add flour until the furrow left by the spoon holds its shape for a moment instead of closing at once. For the coating batter, it should cling to a slice of apple or banana without running off.
- A pint of grated cornPerhaps four to eight ears of sweet corn, depending on size and how much pulp comes off, since grated corn yields less than cut kernels. Grate or scrape so you get the milky pulp and leave the tough hulls on the cob.
- Canned cornDrain it well before chopping, or the batter will need more flour than the two cups called for. Modern canned kernels are probably sweeter than their 1911 equivalent; a quick pulse in a food processor replaces the chopping bowl.
- Powdered sugarIn this period the term usually meant sugar ground finer than granulated, not necessarily today's confectioners' sugar. Either will serve, and granulated works too since it dissolves in the milk and egg.
- Draining"Drain on paper" most likely meant brown or other unglazed absorbent paper; paper towels or a wire rack over a sheet pan do the job. A rack keeps the undersides crisper.
- YieldNone is given. As a rough estimate, each corn batch should make sixteen to twenty spoon-sized fritters, and the plain batter will coat something like a pound of fruit, oysters or vegetable pieces.
Fritter batter was thought of as a preparation rather than a dish: one bowl of it could carry apples, bananas, oysters, salsify, cold meat scraps or spoonfuls of corn, sweet or savory according to whether the sugar and sherry went in. Corn fritters are the American branch of the family, and the two versions here mark a real change in the kitchen. No. 1 assumes fresh ears grated over a bowl, a summer job; No. 2 assumes a can, and the fact that Butterick printed both in 1911 shows canned sweet corn had become reliable enough to stand in year-round. The batter also insists that the fat be ready before the baking powder is stirred in.