No. 3041

Celeriac, Pear and Quartered Apple Fritters

Beignets de Celeris-Raves de Poires et de Quartiers de Pommes

Celeriac.—Cut some celery roots in four, pare neatly and blanch them in plenty of water, then drain and finish cooking in a twenty-two degree syrup with a gill of Madeira wine added; when done, drain, wipe dry and leave to get cold, then dip them in frying batter (No. 137), and plunge into hot fat. As soon as of a fine color and the paste is crisp, drain and wipe them off, bestrew over with sugar and serve.

Pear Fritters are prepared the same, either with small pears or quartered larger ones, blanched and cooked in syrup and kirsch. Should the pears be very ripe they may be used raw and finished exactly the same as celery fritters.

Quartered Apples.—Peel and core the apples, cook them firmly in a light syrup with maraschino, drain and fry the same as for the above; glaze with sugar, pour over some rum and serve.

← No. 3040 Brioche and Cream Fritters with Sabayon Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3042 Cherry Fritters—Fresh or Brandied →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three variations on one method: firm fruit (or root) poached in flavoured syrup, cooled, battered and deep-fried. The syrup density and the cooling step are what decide whether these hold together.

Cool the poached pieces completelyThis is the hinge. Warm, moist celeriac or pear sheds steam inside the batter and blows it open in the fat. Drain, blot dry on a towel, and chill until cold and tacky before dipping.
A twenty-two degree syrupDegrees Baumé, read with a saccharometer, not temperature. Twenty-two Baumé is roughly 40 percent sugar by weight — about 1½ cups sugar dissolved in 2 cups water. It poaches without candying the pieces solid.
A gillHalf a cup. That is the Madeira for the celeriac syrup; the kirsch for pears and maraschino for apples are unmeasured, and half a cup for a similar quantity of syrup is a fair reading.
Celery roots means celeriacOne knobbly root of about 1 lb, peeled hard to remove all the fibrous outer layer, gives four quarters. The recipe says only to blanch in plenty of water; allow roughly 8-10 minutes, then poach in the syrup until a knife enters with slight resistance, perhaps 15-25 minutes depending on size.
Frying batter No. 137A cross-reference to the book's own frying batter, which in this period would typically be flour, a little oil or melted butter, water or beer, salt, and stiffly beaten egg whites folded in at the last moment. Any thin tempura-style or beer batter behaves the same way here.
Hot fat means 350-360FHot fat -- The book gives no temperature. Around 350-360F is a workable modern reading: much below and the batter absorbs fat before it sets, much above and the sugar in the poached pieces can darken before the crust is done. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds.
Glazing with sugar'Glaze with sugar' for the apples most likely means dusting with sugar and passing the fritters under fierce top heat - a salamander then, a broiler now - until the sugar caramelises. Watch it constantly; battered fritters darken fast.
The rumThe recipe says simply to pour it over and serve; it gives no quantity and does not call for it to be lit. If you do choose to flame it, warm the rum first, keep it off the heat when you strike the match, and pour from a jug rather than the bottle.
Yield and servingServing -- The recipe gives no quantities, so scale to the number of roots or fruit you prepare. Fritters do not wait -- batter softens within minutes, so fry to order and serve immediately.

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the French repertoire's easy movement between vegetable and fruit in a sweet course: celeriac, blanched to strip its bitterness and then candied in Madeira syrup, is treated exactly as a pear would be. Sweetened root vegetables in dessert have a long European history — carrot puddings, candied angelica, beetroot in confectionery — and celeriac, often said to have been established in French cookery from the eighteenth century onward, takes syrup readily once its raw sharpness is boiled off. The three liqueurs are not decorative: kirsch with pears, maraschino with apples and rum as a finishing pour, each chosen to reinforce the fruit rather than mask it. Fritters of this kind belonged to the entremets, the hot sweet dishes served late in a long service, when something fried and freshly sugared arriving at the table still counted as a small event.