No. 137

Frying Batters

Pates a Frire

No. 1.—Put into a vessel, half a pound of flour, a little salt, four tablespoonfuls of oil and three egg-yolks; dilute these with sufficient water at once, so as not to have to add any more, and the size of half an inch ball of compressed yeast dissolved in a little tepid water; mix till it becomes smooth and flows without being stringy; it should well cover the spoon. Lay a cloth over the vessel, and keep it in a moderate temperature. At the last moment add to it three beaten egg-whites.

No. 2.—Place in a vessel half a pound of flour, a little salt, two tablespoonfuls of oil, diluted in tepid water, and then add a piece of compressed yeast the size of a half an inch ball, dissolved in a little water. Set the batter in a moderate temperature, and when it begins to ferment, add a handful of flour, salt, oil and water. The batter should be renewed every day without adding yeast; the fermentation produced by the batter will be sufficient to keep it light, and avoid the use of any more yeast.

No. 3.—This is a finer preparation, intended for sweet dishes, etc. Take half a pound of flour, dilute it with tepid water, into which an ounce of butter has been melted, also salt; make a soft, very smooth batter and when it has cooled off, add to it half a gill of brandy, two egg-yolks and two whites, beaten to a stiff froth.

No. 4.—This is frying batter with baking powder. Put five ounces of flour into a vessel, diluting it with two gills of tepid water, one tablespoonful of brandy, two of oil, a pinch of salt and one egg-yolk. When ready to use, add a small coffeespoonful of baking-powder and one egg-white, beaten to a stiff froth.

← No. 136 Frolle Paste or Sweet Elementary Methods No. 138 Macaroon Paste →

For the Modern Kitchen

Four batters for deep-frying, three leavened with yeast and one with baking powder. The measurements are period French-American professional usage, and a few need translating before you start.

Weights and volumesHalf a pound of flour is about 1¾ cups (225 g); five ounces is a scant 1¼ cups (140 g). A gill is half a cup, so two gills is 1 cup of water and half a gill of brandy is ¼ cup.
Compressed yeast"A piece the size of a half-inch ball" is imprecise: read literally it is only a gram or two, though period practice suggests something nearer a quarter to a third of an ounce of fresh cake yeast. Instant dry yeast is conventionally used at about a third the weight of fresh.
A coffeespoonfulIn nineteenth-century usage a coffeespoon is generally taken as about half a teaspoon. For No. 4, start with ½ teaspoon of baking powder in 5 oz of flour; a full teaspoon will not ruin it but gives a puffier, more cake-like coating.
"A moderate temperature"This refers to proving, not baking: the text says only to cover the vessel and keep it warm, giving no figure and no timing. A warm room and a rise until the batter is slack and bubbled is the usual reading.
The consistency test"It should well cover the spoon" is the hinge of No. 1. The text tells you to add enough water at once so that no more need be added later, and to mix only until smooth and flowing rather than stringy.
Adding the whitesBeaten whites go in at the last moment and are folded, not stirred. Once they are in, the batter has minutes, not hours; a batter that has stood loses its lift and fries heavy.
No. 2 is a perpetual batterThe text has it renewed every day with flour, salt, oil and water, the resident fermentation doing the work of fresh yeast. It needs daily use, and the book keeps it at a moderate temperature. Discard it if it smells sharply of acetone or shows any colour.
Frying temperatureNone is given. Yeast and baking-powder batters want 350–375°F; below that they soak, above that the outside colours before the interior sets.
YieldHalf a pound of flour makes a fair quantity of batter, enough for fritters for several servings. No. 3, enriched with butter and brandy, is the one the text designates for sweet dishes.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and pages like this one are the working foundations rather than the showpieces — the pâte à frire from which dozens of later numbered recipes for fritters and beignets draw. Yeast-raised frying batter is the older French method, and No. 2's self-renewing pot is essentially a sourdough kept for frying, practical only in a kitchen that fries every day. No. 4 is the interesting one historically: chemical baking powders became widely available in American kitchens in the second half of the nineteenth century, and Ranhofer lists the version "with baking powder" as a distinct alternative rather than a replacement, which is roughly how a conservative professional would have regarded it at the time.