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Orange Fritters
Peel the oranges, cut them in halves, pick out the seeds, and, with a sharp knife, scrape off all the white pith; put them in a basin together with some fine sugar and three tablespoonfuls of brandy, and leave them for an hour or two, afterwards draining them on a sieve. Warm and beat two ounces of butter, beat also the yolks of two eggs, mix them together with the butter in three-fourths of a pound of flour, and stir in gradually with a wooden spoon sufficient tepid water to make the whole into a smooth batter. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff snow, and mix them lightly with the batter at the last moment. Put a large piece of lard or clarified fat into a flat stewpan, and place it over the fire until boiling; dip the pieces of orange into the batter, coating them well, and fry in the boiling fat until nicely browned. Then take them out, and put them on a sheet of kitchen-paper to drain. Spread a folded napkin or an ornamental dish-paper over a hot dish, place the fritters upon it, sprinkle sugar over them, and serve.
A straightforward French-style fritter batter with macerated citrus. The original is vague in two places that matter: how the oranges are cut, and how much water goes into the batter.
- Cut the fruit smaller"Cut them in halves" gives a piece far too large to cook through in a batter coating. Separate the peeled oranges into segments, or cut crosswise into rounds about half an inch thick, and remove seeds and pith from those.
- Dry the fruit before dippingAfter the hour or two in sugar and brandy, drain the pieces and blot them on a towel. Wet fruit sheds batter in the fat and makes it spit.
- The flour quantityThree-quarters of a pound is roughly 2 3/4 cups. With only two eggs and 2 oz (4 tablespoons) of butter, this is a lean, water-slack batter — the water is what carries it, and the recipe leaves the amount to the cook ('sufficient tepid water'). Add it gradually to a thick pouring consistency, like heavy cream; expect somewhere near 1 1/2 cups.
- Rest the batterNot stated, but mix the flour, butter, yolks and water and let it stand 30 minutes before folding in the whites. It relaxes the gluten and the coating comes out lighter.
- Fat temperature"Until boiling" means the fat is shimmering and moving, not literally at a boil. Hold it at 350–375°F. Below that the batter drinks fat; above it, the sugar clinging to the fruit scorches before the inside is hot.
- Fat choice and depthLard or clarified fat as written both work; if you use clarified butter it browns fast at frying heat. A neutral oil is easier to control. Two inches in a wide, heavy pan.
- TimingTwo to three minutes, turning once. These are done when the batter is set and golden — the fruit only needs to heat through.
- Finishing and yieldSprinkle with superfine sugar the moment they leave the paper, while the surface is still slightly damp so it sticks. The recipe gives no number of oranges, and this is a generous quantity of batter — more than enough for a large dish of fritters; fritters do not hold, so fry in batches and send them out as they come.
Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel of the Waldorf and later the Waldorf-Astoria, published The Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf in 1896, and its French-leaning dessert chapters reflect the hotel kitchen's grounding in the classical repertoire — this is essentially beignets d'orange, a standard of nineteenth-century French pastry work, in which fruit is first steeped in sugar and spirit, then battered and deep-fried. The maceration step is chiefly a matter of flavor. Oranges reached American cities in quantity by rail and steamer in the last decades of the century, and a dish that used several at once was no small undertaking. Serving the fritters on a folded napkin over a hot dish, as directed here, was a common nineteenth-century presentation for fried dishes.