FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: Fritters are served for luncheon, dinner or supper, as an entree, a vegetable or a sweet, according to the ingredients used.

The foundation batter is much the same for all fritters.

They should be fried in deep fat, hot enough to brown a piece of bread in 60 seconds.

BATTER FOR SAVORY FRITTERS
Put six ounces of flour into a basin, with a pinch of salt, the yolk of one egg, and one-fourth pint of warm water. Work this round and round with a wooden spoon till it is perfectly smooth and looks like thick cream. About half an hour before the batter is wanted for use, whip the white of one egg to a stiff froth and mix it lightly in.

FRYING FRITTERS
Have plenty of nice sweet lard in which to fry fritters, and test the heat by dropping in a teaspoon before you risk more. If right, the batter will rise quickly to the surface in a puff-ball, spluttering and dancing, and will speedily assume a rich golden-brown color. Take up, as soon as done, with a skimmer, shaking it to dislodge any drops of lard that may adhere. Fry as many at a time as the kettle will hold, and send in hot fresh ones while the batter lasts. A round-bottomed saucepan or kettle, rather wide at top, is best for frying them.

CHEESE FRITTERS
Pound some dry cheese, or take about three ounces of Parmesan cheese and mix it with a few bread-crumbs, a piece of butter, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and the yolk of an egg, till the whole becomes a thick paste. Roll the mixture into very small balls, flatten them, flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling lard in the ordinary way. Put them in the oven for five minutes before serving them.

SAGE AND ONION FRITTERS
Make some ordinary sage and onion stuffing, allowing one fresh sage leaf or two dried to each parboiled onion. Add pepper and salt and dried breadcrumbs. Now moisten the whole with clarified butter till the mixture becomes a moist pulp. When it begins to get cold and sets, roll it into small balls the size of a very small walnut. Flatten these and let them get quite cold, then flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling lard. Remove them with the frying-basket, and serve with fried parsley.

SPINACH FRITTERS
Make a little thick puree of spinach and add a pinch of savory herbs containing marjoram. Mix in a little clarified butter and one or two lumps of sugar rubbed on the outside of a lemon, as well as a little grated nutmeg. Roll the mixture into very small balls or else they will break. Flatten them, flour them, dip them into batter, and throw them into boiling lard, and serve immediately.

POTATO FRITTERS
Grate some floury (fluffy, dry) potatoes and mix with one-fourth pound butter, a well-beaten-up egg, and three ounces of sugar. The addition of a little cream is a great improvement. Roll the mixture into small balls and flour them. They are then fried just as they are, without being dipped into batter.

POTATO FRITTERS No. 2
Mix well four ounces mashed potato, one ounce bread crumbs, one egg, one teaspoon minced parsley, and a little pepper and salt. When mixed, roll into little balls or sausages, and fry either in butter or boiling lard.

PARSNIP FRITTERS
Scrape and boil five or six parsnips in salted water until tender and drain. If old parsnips, cut out the center, as it is tough and woody. Mash parsnips fine, add one egg yolk (the white beaten separately), and added last, a little salt, one tablespoon flour, and one-fourth teaspoon baking powder. Mold into small cakes, dredge with flour, and fry quickly to a golden brown in a tablespoon of butter and one of drippings. Do not put them in a covered dish, for that would steam them and deprive them of their crispness, which is one of their great charms. Serve at once.

INDIAN FRITTERS
Having beaten eight eggs very light, stir them gradually into a quart of rich milk, gradually adding twelve large tablespoons of yellow Indian meal*, and a salt-spoon of salt. When all is in, stir the whole very hard. Have ready over a clear fire, in a pot or a large frying-pan, a pound of fresh lard, boiling fast. Drop the batter into it, a ladleful at a time. If you find the batter too thin, stir into it a little more Indian meal. As the lard boils away, replenish it with more. As fast as they are done, take out each fritter with a perforated skimmer; through the holes of which let the lard drip back into the pot. The fritters must all be well drained. In cooking these fritters, you may drop in three or four, one immediately after another; and they will not run if the lard is boiling fast, the batter thick enough, and made with the proper number of eggs. Send them to table hot, and eat them with wine and sugar, or with molasses.

*Indian meal – corn meal

EGG AND TOMATO FRITTERS
6 hard-boiled eggs.
6 teaspoons bread crumbs.
6 teaspoons minced parsley.
6 teaspoons minced tomato.
1⁄2 teaspoon salt.
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper.
1 egg.
Mince the eggs, parsley and tomato. Mix altogether with the pepper and salt, bread crumbs, and half a beaten egg. Form into little cutlets, roll in the other half of the egg and bread crumbs, and fry in boiling oil.

HOMINY FRITTERS
Two teacups* of boiled hominy,
One teacup of sweet milk,
Four tablespoons of flour,
Half a teaspoon of baking powder,
Salt to the taste,
One egg. 

The hominy must be well boiled and cold. Mash well with a spoon, stir in the flour and milk alternately, with the well beaten yolk of the egg. Put in salt to the taste, sprinkle the baking powder lightly through, and lastly the white of the egg beaten to a froth. Fry in boiling lard until golden brown, strain, and serve hot.

*teacup – same as a jill or gill; four ounces U.S.

CORN FRITTERS
2 cups corn pulp
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
To the corn, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Separate the eggs and stir in the beaten yolks. Beat the whites stiff and fold them into the mixture. Drop with a spoon into deep fat and fry until brown. Remove from the fat and drain on paper. Serve plain, with a desired sauce, or with maple syrup.

OYSTER FRITTERS
Select plump, good-sized oysters. Drain off the juice, and to a cup of this juice add a cup of milk, a little salt, four well-beaten eggs, and flour enough to make batter like griddle-cakes. Envelope an oyster in a spoonful of this batter (some cut them in halves or chop them fine). Then fry in butter and lard, mixed, in a frying pan, turning to fry brown on both sides. Send to the table very hot.

CLAM FRITTERS
Take fifty small or twenty-five large sand clams from their shells. If large, cut each in two and lay them on a thickly-folded napkin. Put a pint bowl of wheat flour into a basin, add to it three well-beaten eggs, half a pint of sweet milk and nearly as much of their own liquor. Beat the batter until it is smooth and perfectly free from lumps, then stir in the clams. Put plenty of lard or beef fat into a thick-bottomed frying pan. Let it become boiling hot, put in the batter by the spoonfuls, and let them fry gently. When one side is a delicate brown, turn over to the other.

Image from Deposit Photos

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