Historical Recipe Reconstruction
Name: Marilyn Bowen and Emilie Foyer
Date and Time:

2015.09.17, 1:30pm

Location: Harlem, NY
Subject: Fritters, Otherwayes in the Italian Fashion

The Presentation
Notes on the Presentation:

The Ingredients and our Equivalents

• In choosing the rice, we chose a medium grain, thinking that an average, non-aromatic variety (that is, not jasmine or basmati) would be the most neutral option
• For the cream, we chose heavy cream, which might have affected the outcome of the rice
• In choosing the cheese we looked at the recipe above ours which called for a Holland cheese or parmesan. We decided to use parmesan in as the "good fat cheese" listed in our recipe.
• We researched either type of bread and discovered that manchet was a plain bread often considered a precursor to modern white bread, so we purchased two large rolls of white bread

Grating the bread

• The recipe calls for the bread to be grated and added to the mixture, but grating the fresh bread proved very difficult. To facilitate the process, we toasted the bread which provided a much more consistent product.

Boiling the rice in cream

• We put the pound of rice with the pint of cream in a small pot, covered it, brought it up to a boil, reduced the heat and let it sit.
• After opening the lid, we saw the cream had been absorbed, but that the rice was burnt at the edges and still undercooked.
• We added a bit of water and then a bit of milk and cooked the rice on a low heat, stirring continuously, until the rice was tender.

Adding the "good fat cheese"

• We used a mixture of half freshly grated parmesan and half pre-grated parmesan to total just under a pound of cheese.
• Upon adding this to the rice mixture, we noticed it was becoming increasingly difficult to combine. The mixture was very dry, crumbly and was not combining.
• Here we had to vary considerably from the recipe and added a bit of milk to make the mixture come together.
• We attributed this dryness to our rice. Perhaps if our rice had not been so dry the mixture might have had more liquid in it which would have aided in the combining process.

Adding the "musk," sugar and bread

• There were no quantities listed for any of these ingredients.
• We had to use our own taste as a guide and added about 1 tsp of nutmeg, 1 tbs of sugar and 1 tbs of breadcrumbs.
• The addition of these items did not vastly affect the flavor or outcome of the fritters, but provided an extra layer of nuance to the product.

Adding the egg

• The recipe called for the yolks of 4 or 5 "hard eggs."
• We chose to interpret this as hard-boiled, so we boiled, peeled and separated the yolks from 5 eggs.
• We added these yolks to the mixture and combined.

Constructing the Fritters

• The only information provided by the recipe was to form the mixture into a ball shape and fry them.
• We chose to make the fritters about the size of our palms, and to fry them in a shallow pan of vegetable oil.
• The recipe suggests that if the paste is too tender, one might add flour or the grated bread.
• We chose to utilize this suggestion by rolling the raw fritters in the breadcrumbs and/or the flour.