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Rice Puffs
Put two breakfast cupfuls of cold, cooked rice into a basin, stir in one teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda and three tablespoonfuls of flour, one tablespoonful of warmed butter, the well-beaten yolks of five eggs and enough milk to form the whole into a stiff paste. Then add the whites of the five eggs beaten to a froth; take the preparation up in a spoon, drop the lumps into a fryingpan of boiling fat, brown, remove them, and drain off all the fat, put them on a napkin spread over a dish, and serve without delay.
A fritter batter built on leftover rice, thickened with flour and lifted with beaten whites. It is quick, but the frying temperature and the handling of the whites decide whether the puffs are light or greasy.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup — roughly 8 to 10 fluid ounces, so read it as a standard US cup. Two cups of cooked rice is roughly 11 to 13 oz by weight.
- Bicarbonate of sodaThere is little acid in this batter for the soda to react with — sweet milk supplies very little — so a full teaspoon risks a metallic, soapy taste. Half a teaspoon of baking powder will do the same job here, and the beaten whites are doing most of the lifting anyway.
- The riceCold, cooked, and preferably a day old. Warm rice sheds starch into the batter and the puffs turn gluey; short or medium grain gives a creamier interior than long grain.
- "Enough milk to form a stiff paste"Start with two or three tablespoons and stop when the mixture just holds its shape on a spoon. A slack batter spreads in the fat instead of puffing.
- Folding the whitesFold them in with a spatula in a few strokes and fry immediately. Stirring them in, or letting the bowl stand while the fat heats, collapses the only structure the puffs have.
- Boiling fatModern reading: 360–375°F, deep enough that the lumps float free. Below that they soak; above, the outside colours before the egg inside sets. Fry in batches so the temperature does not crash.
- DrainingThe napkin is period service. Drain on paper towel, then transfer to a warm dish — they deflate and soften within a few minutes, which is why Oscar says to serve without delay.
- Yield and servingRoughly two dozen puffs, depending on spoon size — enough for four to six. Unsweetened as written, they suit a breakfast or supper plate; a dusting of sugar and cinnamon, or a spoonful of jam, turns them into a sweet dish.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 book carries the name of the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel, and much of it is compiled rather than a record of dishes cooked to order in that kitchen; rice fritters of this kind belong to the thrift end of the repertoire it draws on: a way of turning yesterday's boiled rice into something that could be sent out hot and looking deliberate. Nineteenth-century American cookbooks are full of the pattern — cold rice, cold hominy, cold mush, bound with egg and flour and dropped into fat. The napkin spread over the dish is a service detail of the period, meant to absorb fat and keep the puffs from sitting in it on the way to the table.