No. 3046

Singapore Fritters

Beignets Singapore

Dry two dozen macaroons; break them up and mash them with some rum in order to make a consistent paste. Peel neatly a medium-sized ripe pineapple; remove the core with a column tube five-eighths of an inch in diameter and split it lengthwise in two; cut from each half, even slices, having them one-eighth of an inch thick; put these slices in a vessel, bestrew with sugar, and pour over some brandy, then let macerate for two hours. Drain, wipe, and cover one side with the macaroon and rum paste; lay another slice on top and fasten the two together so as to enclose the macaroons, then roll them in powdered cracker, and dip them in frying batter (No. 137); plunge into hot frying fat, and when the paste becomes crisp and of a fine color drain off the fritters, wipe and dredge with sugar; set them on a baking sheet, push them into a hot oven to glaze, and dress in a pyramid on a folded napkin. Serve separately a sauce made with apricot marmalade (No. 3675) diluted with the pineapple infusion and a little rum, adding some square pieces of pineapple.

← No. 3045 Orange Fritters a la Talleyrand Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3047 Souffled Fritters a la Medicis →

For the Modern Kitchen

A late-nineteenth-century restaurant fritter: pineapple slices sandwiched with rum-soaked macaroons, battered, fried, then flashed in the oven to glaze. Nothing here is difficult, but the assembly depends on slices thin enough to bend and dry enough to hold batter.

The hinge: dry the fruitPineapple macerated in sugar and brandy sheds a great deal of liquid, and wet slices will slide apart and shed their batter in the fat. Drain, then blot both faces firmly with a towel before the macaroon paste goes on, and keep the sandwiches cold until the moment of frying.
MacaroonsThese are French almond macaroons — crisp almond-and-egg-white rounds, not the coconut kind and not filled Parisian macarons. Two dozen small ones give perhaps 6-8 oz depending on size; the book only says to dry them, so if they are soft, dry them slowly in a very low oven, then crush and work in rum a spoonful at a time until the paste just holds together, stiff enough to spread.
Column tubeA five-eighths-inch column tube is a plain round cutter or apple corer. Any corer of about that diameter will take out the woody centre.
Slice thicknessAn eighth of an inch is thinner than most cooks would cut by instinct; a mandoline or a very sharp knife is worth using, since thicker slices stay fibrous inside the short frying time.
Powdered crackerFine dry cracker crumbs — unsalted soda crackers or plain water biscuits pulverised and sifted. Fine dry breadcrumbs behave the same way, giving the batter something to grip.
Frying batter (No. 137)Frying batter of this period is generally flour, a little oil or melted butter, water or beer, and stiffly whipped egg whites folded in at the end, but check No. 137 for Ranhofer's own formula. Fry at around 350-360F; hotter and the sugary fruit scorches before the batter sets.
"A hot oven" to glazeThe book gives no temperature. A hot oven of the period would be somewhere in the region of 400-450F, and the fritters need only a moment there: the sugar dredge is being melted to a shine, and they are already cooked.
Sauce and yieldWarm apricot jam sieved and loosened with the strained maceration liquid plus a spoonful of rum, with the squares of pineapple added. Yield depends entirely on the size of the pineapple and how many usable slices it gives, two slices to each fritter; they are best eaten quickly, though Ranhofer has them dressed together in a pyramid.

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 this fritter is characteristic of the house style: an expensive tropical fruit, a liqueur maceration, and a garnish assembled into a pyramid on a folded napkin. Fresh pineapple was still a luxury import in Ranhofer's Manhattan, and dishes that displayed it whole and freshly cut carried real weight on a menu. The name is decorative rather than geographic — it belongs with the ornamental tags such as "a la Talleyrand" or "a la Medicis" given to the fritters flanking this one, and there is no evidence of any Singaporean origin. What is genuinely old here is the technique: sandwiching a sweet paste between two slices of fruit before battering them, applied to whatever the market offered.