Batter for Various Fritters

Pâte à frire teaches the discipline of not stirring. If you mean to fry at once, turn the flour, fat, and barely warm water over and over with the spoon; circular stirring makes the batter elastic, and an elastic batter draws back from the very thing it should coat. That is the one true thing to know before you touch the bowl. Get it right and the coating clings thinly, puffs just enough, and fries crisp and gold.

The book's pound of flour assumed brigade portions and a frying bath already kept hot. It needed no saucier, stockpot, or salamander; scale was its only professional convenience. Here every fixed quantity is halved, the smallest clean division that uses one whole egg white, and a deep saucepan with a thermometer stands in for the fryer. It gives four generous appetizer servings, one cook, one stove, one evening.

The brigade quantity is scaffolding and can go. The turning motion, the rest if you do stir, and the frothy white folded in at the last moment are the dish and must stay. Prepare and dry everything you intend to dip before you begin, because once the white enters, the batter should go straight to the hot fat.