No. 3043

Cream of Rice Fritters

Beignets de Creme de Riz

Dissolve ten ounces of rice flour in a bowl with one quart of cold milk; pass this through a sieve into a saucepan, and add to it a gram of salt, three ounces of butter, two spoonfuls of sugar and the fourth part of a vanilla bean; stir over a slow fire until it comes to a boil, then continue to cook the preparation for twenty minutes on the side of the range, adding to it a little raw cream. Take out the vanilla, and pour into another saucepan, then reduce it for a few moments. When consistent take it from the fire and mix in with it three ounces of pulverized macaroons, a piece of fresh butter, and five or six well-beaten whole eggs. When the preparation has been thoroughly mingled prepare some wafer sheets, three and a half inches by two and a half; soften them between two damp napkins, and lay on the preparation run through a pocket in to sticks three-quarters of an inch in diameter, having them the whole length of the leaves; roll them into cylindricals and fasten the edges firmly, or else it may be poured directly on a baking sheet without wafers, dampened with cold water, to the thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and then set aside to cool for a few hours. Divide the preparation into pieces, three-quarters of an inch wide by three and a half inches long, or an inch and a half cubes, or else in rounds measuring one and five-eighths inches in diameter by three-quarters thick; roll the fritters in pulverized macaroons, then in beaten eggs and lastly in bread-crumbs; plunge them into hot frying fat, a few at a time, and when they have attained a fine color drain and wipe, bestrew with powdered vanilla-flavored sugar and dress on a folded napkin.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a fried-custard fritter: a stiff rice-flour pastry cream, chilled until sliceable, breaded and deep-fried. Everything depends on the paste being thick enough and cold enough to hold its shape in the fat.

The hinge: chill it hardThe paste must be spread three-quarters of an inch thick and left several hours until fully set — overnight in the refrigerator is better than the "few hours" given. A paste that is merely cool will burst its crumb coating and bleed into the fryer.
Rice flour, not cream of rice cereal"Crème de riz" here means finely milled rice flour used as a thickener. Use plain white rice flour, not sweet/glutinous rice flour and not a boxed hot cereal. Ten ounces to one quart of milk is a very stiff ratio, which is the point.
"A gram of salt"A rendering of the French gramme — a gram of salt is only about a fifth of a teaspoon. Given the quantity of milk, a scant teaspoon is closer to modern taste.
"Two spoonfuls of sugar"Ambiguous in the original; Ranhofer's spoonful is generally a tablespoon, so about 1 oz. This is a barely sweet paste, since the finished fritters are rolled in macaroon crumbs and dusted with vanilla sugar.
Vanilla beanA quarter bean is fine for a quart of milk; split it so the seeds infuse, and remove it as directed before the eggs go in. A teaspoon of extract stirred in off the heat is an acceptable substitute.
The eggsFive or six whole eggs go into a very hot, very thick paste. Take the pan off the heat, beat the eggs first, and add them in two or three additions with vigorous stirring, or they will scramble. The eggs are what set the fritter; between the hot paste and the frying they should cook through, but fry long enough that the centre is hot, not merely warm.
Wafer sheetsThese are feuilles d'azyme — unleavened baking wafers, the same material as communion wafers and the papers under nougat and macarons. Edible rice paper or wafer paper sold for cake decorating works. The recipe explicitly offers the no-wafer version, which is simpler and just as good.
Pulverized macaroonsDry almond macaroons (amaretti are the closest thing on a shelf today), crushed to crumbs. They go into the paste and again into the breading, so buy roughly double what you need.
FryingThe recipe specifies only "hot frying fat"; around 350–360°F suits it. Higher and the coating colors before the center warms through; fry a few at a time so the temperature holds, and drain on paper rather than the cloth of the period.
YieldA quart of milk makes a substantial tray — roughly 30 to 40 fritters at the sizes given, enough for eight to ten as a dessert course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially a French professional repertoire written out for an American kitchen — which is why a French wafer sheet and a French gramme sit side by side with inches and quarts. Fried custard of this kind is old and widespread: the Italian crema fritta and the Spanish leche frita work on the same principle of a starch-bound cream set firm and then breaded. Rice flour suits a paste meant to be cut into clean geometric pieces, setting drier and less elastic than wheat flour, and ground rice also carried an association in the period as a light, digestible food for invalids and children — here promoted to the dessert service, gilded with macaroons and vanilla sugar and sent out on a folded napkin in the manner Ranhofer commonly used for fried entremets.