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Grape Fritters
Crack two fresh eggs in a bowl, adding four heaping tablespoons flour, one saltspoon salt, two tablespoons Sugar, half gill milk, half saltspoon grated nutmeg and half saltspoon ground cinnamon, sharply mix with the whisk until well thickened and totally free from any lumps. Pick off the stems from a half pound of small, sweet, white grapes, and add them to the batter and gently mix with a spoon. Thoroughly heat two tablespoons melted butter in a large frying pan, then take up the batter by tablespoonfuls and drop it into the pan in round forms and fry for three minutes on each side. Take them up, dress on a dish with a folded napkin, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over them and serve.
A thick drop batter, closer to a pancake than a deep-fried fritter, cooked in a shallow film of butter. The measurements are Edwardian but all translate cleanly.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the salt is 1/4 tsp, and the nutmeg and cinnamon are 1/8 tsp each.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup of milk. With two eggs and four heaping tablespoons of flour this is a loose drop batter rather than a stiff one; the recipe asks only that it be whisked until thickened and free of lumps.
- The grapes"Small, sweet, white grapes" points to small white table grapes; whether they were seedless is not stated, so check for pips. Modern green seedless work directly; halve any that are much larger than a thumbnail so they cook through and do not tear the batter open.
- Dry the fruitGrapes washed and left wet will thin the batter and spit in the butter. Drain and pat them dry before folding in.
- Heat and fatTwo tablespoons of butter in a large pan is a shallow fry, not a deep one. Keep the pan at medium — butter solids will burn before six minutes are up over high heat, and clarified butter or a butter-and-oil mix is more forgiving.
- TimingThree minutes a side suits the small rounds a tablespoonful makes. Judge by colour: deep gold and set at the centre. Thicker spoonfuls will still be raw inside at that time.
- The folded napkinA period serving convention — the linen absorbs frying fat and keeps the fritters from steaming on the plate. A rack or paper does the same job.
- YieldNo yield is given; a tablespoonful at a time, the batter and half-pound of grapes will make appreciably more than a dozen small fritters. They are at their best within a few minutes of leaving the pan.
Fruit fritters of this kind run through European cookery for centuries — batter as a vehicle for whatever the season offered, apples in autumn, elderflowers in spring, grapes at the vintage. Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, assembled The International Cook Book in 1906 as a survey of dishes from across Europe and beyond, and it collects homely items like this one alongside the restaurant repertoire he was better known for. The spicing here, nutmeg and cinnamon together with sugar, is a common sweet-fritter seasoning in nineteenth-century American and English kitchens.