Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Apple Fritters. — Cut a dozen large, juicy apples into slices, after peeling and coring them. Throw the slices into the batter. Have ready a pan of equal parts of lard and butter, boiling hot. Take the batter up in a ladle, allowing a slice of apple to each fritter, and drop into the hot lard. Fry brown, drain a moment, and serve with powdered sugar and nutmeg. Banana Fritters. — Peel half a dozen bananas and cut them in two, and then lengthwise. Put the pieces of fruit in a bowl and sprinkle over them two table-spoonfuls of sugar and three of sherry wine. Let them stand two hours in a cool place. Dip the pieces of banana into the batter, and drop them into hot fat and cook a delicate brown. Drain them on brown paper and serve hot with a lemon sauce. Bread and Fruit Fritters. — Take twelve slices of bread and butter, cut off the crust, and let them be of equal thickness ; spread them over with jam — any sort that may be liked — and make a cover with another slice ; press them tightly together, and cut them into any desired forms. Dip them in batter and fry in boiling lard about ten minutes ; dry them before the fire on a piece of blotting-paper and serve on a napkin, with sifted sugar sprinkled over. Cheese and Spaghetti Fritters. — Boil a scant half-cup of spaghetti very tender, drain, and chop fine. Stir into it a large table-spoonful each of grated cheese and cream, and season with salt and a little cayenne. Have ready some good puff paste, rolled out very thin. Cut it into rounds, lay on each piece a spoonful of the spaghetti-and-cheese mixture, double over, and pinch the edges together that the contents may not escape. Dip in egg, drop into boiling fat, and fry to a light yellow. Clam Fritters. — Take the clams from the shells and put them into a stewpan. Add about half the strained liquor, and a little black and cayenne pepper mixed. When they have stewed slowly about twenty Corn Fritters FRITTE RS Peach Fritters minutes, take them off the fire, drain the liquor off, and mince them fine, leaving out the hard parts. The fat should be very hot. Corn Fritters. — To six ears of grated corn add four table-spoonfuls of sweet, rich cream, half a coffeecupful of flour, the yolks of three eggs — the whites beaten separately and then stirred in. Salt, and fry as other fritters, in hot butter. Milk will do in place of cream, but is not so nice. Serve with wine sauce. French Cream Fritters. — A halfpint of cold water; half-pint flour; three whole eggs, and the white of a fourth; one table-spoonful each of butter and sugar; grated peel of half a lemon ; tiny pinch of salt. Put the water, sugar, butter, salt, and lemonpeel together in a clean saucepan and bring to a boil. Take it from the fire, and when it cools stir in the flour carefully, that it may not lump. Return to the fire, and stir steadily until it boils. Again take it off and let it cool, and then add the three eggs, one at a time, beating each in well. When it is stirred enough the mixture will leave the spoon clean when you withdraw it. Add now the white of the fourth egg, beaten very stiff. Set the mixture aside for two hours, and then drop it in lumps the size of an English walnut from the end of a spoon into boiling fat. Do not have too many in at once, but take them out with a split spoon as fast as they are done.