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Rice Fritters
Put barely one cupful of rice in sufficient warm water to cover it well, and let it steep for three hours; then put it, with the water in which it was steeped, in a farina kettle and let it simmer until the rice is dry, then pour one pint of milk over it, and let it simmer again until the milk has all soaked into the rice; then stir in one ounce of butter, take it from the fire and let it cool. Beat up three eggs and three ounces of sugar together very lightly, and when the rice has cooled pretty well stir them in with grated nutmeg, salt to the taste, add one tablespoonful of flour. Cover a pasteboard well with flour and make up the mixture with well-floured hands into flat cakes; place in the middle of each cake two or three raisins that have been "plumped" by soaking in boiling water for two or three minutes, roll the edges of the cake over the raisins so as to form a ball, flour the balls well, and fry them in boiling lard. Sprinkle them with powdered cinnamon and sugar, and serve on a napkin folded on a hot dish with sweetened cream.
A rice pudding cooked stiff, wrapped around raisins and deep-fried. The whole dish depends on the rice mixture being cold and dry enough to handle, so plan for the cooling time.
- Farina kettleA double boiler — an inner pan set over simmering water, used for anything that scorches easily. Any bowl or pan over water works; a heavy-bottomed saucepan on low heat will also do if you stir.
- The hinge: a dry, cold pasteThe rice must absorb essentially all the pint of milk and then be chilled until firm before the eggs go in. If it is loose or warm, the balls will not hold and will burst in the fat. Refrigerating the cooked rice an hour past "cooled pretty well" is time well spent.
- RiceUse a short or medium grain that releases starch, not converted or basmati. "Barely one cupful" of raw rice plus a pint of milk gives a stiff pudding, which is what you want here.
- WeightsOne ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons; three ounces of sugar is a scant half cup. The single tablespoon of flour is not a thickener so much as insurance — do not increase it or the fritters turn pasty.
- Frying"Boiling lard" means fat at 350–375°F, not literally boiling. Lard gives the cleanest flavor, but any neutral fat with a high smoke point works. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds, and drain on paper rather than serving straight from the pot.
- ShapingFlour hands, board and the finished balls generously; the mixture is sticky by nature. Keep them to about 1½ inches so the center heats through before the outside darkens — roughly 3 to 4 minutes, turning.
- Serving and yieldAbout 18 to 20 fritters, enough for six as a dessert. The napkin on a hot dish is period presentation to absorb fat; a warmed platter lined with paper is the same idea. "Sweetened cream" is cream with a spoonful of sugar stirred in, poured, not whipped.
Fried rice fritters of this kind sit in a long European line of sweet fried pastes — Italian frittelle di riso, traditionally made for St. Joseph's Day, are close relatives, and French kitchens produced much the same thing as beignets de riz. Oscar Tschirky was maître d'hôtel at the Waldorf from its opening in 1893, and his 1896 book sets homely dishes like this one beside elaborate service pieces. The folded napkin on a hot dish was a common presentation for fried food, and served to blot fat.