Strawberry Fritters
May is the month for strawberries in Virginia. This French recipe works well with any fruit.
18th Century
Make a paste with some flour, a spoonfull of brandy, half a glass of white wine, the whites of two eggs beat and green lemon shred fine. Mix it well, neither too thick nor too thin. It should rope in falling from a spoon. Dip some large strawberrys in to it, fry them and glaze them with a salamander.
– Menon. “French Family Cook”
21st Century
- 1 lb. all-purpose flour
- 5-8 oz. of white wine
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Tbsp. brandy
- zest of two lemons (approximately 2 tsp.)
- 2 lb. strawberries
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 lb. of lard or peanut oil
- Make a batter with the first four ingredients. Add the lemon zest. The batter is right when it resembles a medium pancake batter and can make a rope or a figure eight in the bowl as it drips from a spoon.
- Dunk the strawberries in the batter and then set them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. When the pan is full, put it in the refrigerator for about an hour.
- Melt the lard in a frying pan. When the lard has reached 360 degrees on a thermometer, fry the strawberries in the hot fat.
- Fry them a nice brown, then dust them with sugar.
- Put the sugared strawberries under a broiler for a minute or two to melt the sugar.
June 15th, 2012
Hi Foodways Crew,
If I use apples or pears, is it better to quarter/wedge them or thick slice them? Peeled or not? What other fruits are good to use vs. those that just will not hold up to frying?
I hope your summer season is going well. Anything new going on at the armoury kitchen? I see on the webcam people are coming to see you. Have you baked any bread in the outdoor oven yet?
Have a great sommer,
Chris
June 23rd, 2012
Chris:
If apples or pears are used it would be better to slice them them about 1/4 inch thick and pared. Seedless orange wedges are also good with this recipe. Part of the trick is to make sure that the strawberries are rather medium or on the firmer side. The berries should be patted dry after washing so the batter will cling to them better. Also, keep turning the berries as they are frying so that one side doesn’t get too brown. We have used the oven and it works fairly well and have baked breads, sugar cakes, meat pies and pound cakes in it. Thanks for asking.
Dennis Cotner
June 24th, 2012
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for the response. I didn’t think about using oranges. I’ll give it a try.
Several years ago I took a cooking class on herbs at the Chicago Botanic Garden. They fried whole basil leaves. Sounded strange, but boy were they good. Great on a salad.
Have a great summer,
Chris
June 16th, 2012
Hello all,
I’ve certainly heard of Menon as a famous French chef. I’d some historical background, if it is available. Why would anyone do such a thing to fruit? Would it be because it had gone past the point of being lovely? Certainly “just” overripe fruit is delicious. But the recipe is clearly using whole rather than a “croquette” type friter. Is this a sweet-savory mixup, not meant to be a “dessert” if they had such a notion when this recipe was created.
Thanks, as always,
Helen
June 23rd, 2012
Helen:
Even though Menon (first name not known) wrote cookbooks he was not “into” writing them. When he did it was for the upper class housewife in order to help her manage her home economically. Not much is known about Menon, but his works certainly became “hits” and even went into English translations. As for the strawberries they are very good fried (apple fritters have been an American standard for quite some time) and can be used either to compliment savory or salty tasting meats in the main course or as a dessert item. Tempura is a more recent comparison and even though it is used on seafood and vegetables it works well with fruits of various sorts. Hope you like it.
Dennis Cotner
August 31st, 2012
I noticed that several of your recipes call for brandy; what flavor would you recommend and what flavor brandy would be more historically accurate?
September 4th, 2012
We usually use a French brandy of no particular brand name. We feel it is as close to what was being used as you can work with today. Brandy always makes it good. Thanks.
April 17th, 2013
Would it be better to cut the strawberries in half for more even frying?
April 17th, 2013
Although the recipe does not state to do so, you can slice them if you like. The idea in this recipe is to fry it quickly enough to make the batter adhere to the outside of the fruit, not to fry the strawberry. Literally frying the strwberry will make it mushy. In one of the other replies I gave a suggestion to use strawberries of a medium a/o firmer type. Thanks for the question.
Dennis Cotner