A well-made fritter

I’ve been looking at old recipes again, this time from 1893 and published in The Capricornian, from Rockhampton in Queensland. There must have been a competition because these are the prize recipes from Miss Smiles. The first is her version of Scotch eggs (a favourite of mine!) which she calls Inverness eggs and does not include sausage meat as the coating. She makes a force-me to wrap round the hard-boiled egg, with parsley, thyme, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, butter, chopped anchovy, and a beaten egg, rolled in flour and fried then served with gravy.

Her next recipe is macaroni and tomatoes, which is simple but does not appeal to me, a sauce made from gravy and raw tomatoes stewed together poured over plain boiled macaroni. To be honest, I can’t really see why it’s prize winning! However, her cheese tartlets sound simple and tasty, an enriched pastry tart filled with a mixture of egg yolks, cheese, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, nutmeg and cream. Then Miss Smiles moves on to fritters – “A well-made fritter is really one of the most delicious of simple small dishes,” and I’m sure she’s right, although I’m not sure about minced meat fritters for breakfast! she comments that they may be served as a sweet dish with fruit for dessert, or as an entree with meat. Oranges, apples, and bananas are all excellent served in a fritter batter and here is her recipe for a variety of fritter, the Spanish puff which she describes as excellent:

To make these, prepare a paste similar to that you make for cream cakes. Put half a cup of cold milk and two liberal tablespoonfuls of butter in a bright sauce-pan over the fire. By the time the butter is melted the milk will boil. Then add quickly a cup of thoroughly sifted flour, and stir the mixture until it cleaves from the pan. Add four eggs, one after the other, as soon as the paste is cold. It will take some time to beat the eggs into the batter, but it may be accomplished with patience and by adding the eggs singly. Shape the fritters into little balls and drop them into boiling hot fat, being careful to fry only a few at a time, as they swell to more than double their original size.