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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Colonial Style Corn Fritters

I love combining my writing research with my love of cooking and good food. My characters need to eat and I want them to enjoy foods that would have been common in their time period. My current WIP (work in progress) is set at the beginning of the 19th century. My characters would have had to grow, gather, or hunt most of what they consumed.
This past week I pulled out a favorite cookbook, History from the Hearth, and made a batch of corn fritters. Yummy? You bet! Our ancestors knew their way around food. And thankfully, some of them recorded their recipes and handed them down through the generations.

Colonial Style Corn Fritters
2 cups cooked corn
2 eggs - separated
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teas salt
1/2 teas pepper
lard for frying
Beat the eggs whites in a small bowl until stiff. In a larger bowl, slightly beat the egg yolks, then stir in the cream, flour, salt, and pepper. Fold in the egg whites. Add the corn last. Heat lard (or oil if you prefer) in a large frying pan. Drop batter by the spoonful into hot fat and fry until golden brown, then flip and cook the other side. Serve hot. 

This recipe is so simple, with ingredients any Colonial good wife would have had on hand. It could have been made over a kitchen hearth or campfire. Full of both protein and carbohydrates, these hearty fritters would have given them the energy to do all the work they needed to accomplish to survive. 

Corn fritter #recipe from Colonial American. #Writing research that's tasty too! 


The best part of enjoying a historical recipe like this, is to eat it while enjoying a great Christian historical book. Maybe one day - God willing - it will be mine!

11 comments:

  1. I'm so glad I found you. Thank you for this recipe, I will be trying it to be sure, and knowing it is authentic Colonial, what's not to love. :)

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    1. I'm glad you found us too! I'm thinkin' I need to cook a batch of these for dinner tonight. Because you're right ... what's not to love?!

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  2. Sounds yummy. I love corn fritters and this recipe is similar to my mother-in-law's recipe.
    Blessings, Tina

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  3. Those look delicious, Pegg!!! Thanks for sharing! I want to try those sometime!

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    1. It's a great use for leftover corn on the cob. Of course, we didn't know what that was until our son moved out. ;)

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  4. Sounds similar to mine. I assume in your recipe you do add the corn into the egg yolk, flour, etc mixture, right?

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    1. Yes! But apparently I thought you'd all know that without me typing it. *sigh* Stir it in last.

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  5. I have my husband's mother's recipe for corn fritters! It's been years since I've made them, though, we've cut out food cooked in grease (shortening). Her recipe is a bit different & thicker so that I can almost roll them into balls & drop into a deep fryer. After they were done, we'd pour a little syrup on top & whalaaa...dinner is served :-) I love them, but our stomachs can't handle them anymore! Thanks for the memories, my kids loved them when they were younger :-)

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    1. I've never made that kind of fritter, but I know that's more like what the donut shops make and call apple fritters. Some day I'd like to try it!

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  6. Oh, I bet they are good! my bunch loves cornbread fritters and I'm sure they would like them made this way too. :)

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