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Lemon Fritters
One-fourth pound of eggs, one-half pound flour, one-fourth pound sugar (pulverized); beat the yolks well, add the flour and enough fresh milk to make a stiff batter (about a gill of milk); beat the whites stiff with the sugar, the juice of a lemon and some of the yellow peel grated off, or a spoon of extract of lemon. When ready to cook beat the whites well into the batter and proceed to cook. Have plenty of good lard, heated slowly; just as it begins to smoke, after bubbling, drop in by spoonfuls enough fritters to fill the vessel without crowding. The cold batter will lower the temperature of the fat sufficiently to keep it at proper cooking heat. The fritters will begin to brown very quickly, and should be turned with a wire spoon. If they begin to color dark brown check the heat immediately. If these directions are followed accurately, they may be lifted from the fat and laid upon a napkin or Dust the fritters folded paper comparatively free from grease. Dust the fritters . well with sugar and nutmeg, if agreeable. For supper eat them so, but for dinner some nice sauce should be served. Some persons Fritters bear a bad substitute honey or maple syrup for sauce. Fritters bear a bad reputation, but when properly made, and eaten occasionally for a change, are quite as wholesome as many of the messes recommended as food for dyspeptics. 1
A weight-based fritter batter with a meringue folded in at the last minute — closer to a beignet than a pancake. The hinge is the whites: beat them with the sugar and lemon, fold them in only when the fat is at temperature, and cook immediately.
- The weights, convertedOne-fourth pound of eggs is roughly 2 to 2 1/2 large eggs out of the shell. Half a pound of flour is about 1 3/4 cups scooped and levelled; a quarter pound of pulverized (superfine) sugar is a scant 2/3 cup.
- A gill of milkHalf a cup. Add it gradually — flour absorbency varies, and the batter should be stiff enough to hold its shape on a spoon before the whites go in.
- Fat temperature"Just as it begins to smoke" is unreliable and, with modern refined lard, too hot. Use a thermometer and hold the fat at 360–375°F. The recipe is right that cold batter drops the temperature; work in batches and let it recover between them.
- Frying fatLard still works and gives the cleanest flavour, but any fat with a smoke point above 400°F will do. Allow 2 to 3 inches of depth so the fritters can float and turn.
- A wire spoonA spider or slotted skimmer. Turn each fritter once, when the underside is a deep gold — usually 1 to 2 minutes a side at temperature.
- DrainingA wire rack over a tray beats the folded paper or napkin; paper traps steam and softens the crust. Dust with sugar and nutmeg while still hot so it clings.
- LemonThe juice of a lemon runs to roughly 2 to 3 tablespoons, depending on the fruit. Grated zest carries far more aroma than juice here; if substituting extract, a teaspoon is plenty.
- YieldNo yield is given; the quantities make a large batch, on the order of two to three dozen tablespoon-sized fritters. They collapse and toughen as they cool, so fry them to order.
- The garbled linesThe passage about dusting the fritters and their "bad reputation" is scrambled in the original typesetting. Nothing is missing from the method itself.
The Dixie Cook Book (1880s, compiled from Southern contributors) sits at the point where American recipes were shifting from weights to cups, and this one still measures eggs on a scale — a European pastry habit that gives far more consistent batter than counting shells. The closing defence of fritters as "quite as wholesome as many of the messes recommended as food for dyspeptics" is period argument: fried food was under steady attack from the mid-century health-reform writers, and cookbook authors of the 1870s and 80s are often said to have answered them in print. The distinction between eating fritters plain at supper and sauced at dinner reflects the older American mealtime order, in which dinner was the substantial midday meal and tea or supper the lighter evening one.