Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 Recipe for ‘Raspberry Fritters’
“Grate two Naples Biscuits, pour over them half a Gill of boiling Cream, when it is almost cold, beat the Yolks of four Eggs to a strong Froth, beat the Biscuits a little, then beat both together exceeding well, put to it two Ounces of Sugar, and as much Juice of Raspberry as will make it a pretty pink Colour, and give it a proper sharpness, drop them into a Pan of boiling Lard, the size of a Walnut ; when you dish them up, stick Bits of Citron in some and blanched Almonds cut length-ways in others ; lay round them green and yellow Sweetmeats and ferve them up. They are a pretty Corner Dish for either Dinner or Supper.”
Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769)
We’re back in the company of Elizabeth Raffald, to take a look at another fruity recipe from her collection The Experienced English Housekeeper. This time she’s making delicious-sounding things from raspberries; some sort of deep-fried, donut-like confection, unless I’m very much mistaken. Let’s take a look at the instructions and see what’s what.
First up: grated ‘Naples biscuits’; a plain, sweet, finger biscuit or cake, which according to Wikipedia are the equivalent of the ‘ladyfingers’ biscuits that are still sold today. You know: the crunchy, air-filled, sugar-topped things that tend to be used in trifles and other such desserts. Back in the eighteenth century they were frequently baked specifically for the purpose described in the recipe: grating or breaking into chunks, to use as a starchy, sugary base for another dish.
A splash of cream comes next, and let’s talk about gills. I think it’s pronounced “jill”, but I’m happy to be corrected1I admit, I’m basing this entirely on the pronunciation in the Bellowhead version of the folk song ‘Byker Hill’, in which they sing: “If I had another penny, I would have another gill. I would make the piper play ‘The Bonny Lads of Byker Hill'”, but I know it’s definitely a unit of measure for liquids. How much liquid it measures is, however, potentially up for debate. According to Daniel O’Gorman’s Intuitive Calculations; the Readiest and Most Concise Methods (1853):
“A quarter of a pint is called a gill or noggin ; but in some parts half a pint is termed a gill, and a quarter pint is termed a Jack.”
That was written 80-odd years after Mrs Raffald’s recipe was committed to print, so it could be that the exact measurement of a gill was slightly different in the 1760s, but assuming it was either a quarter or a half pint, or somewhere in that vicinity, then half a gill of cream can be calculated to be somewhere between 71ml and 142ml. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of cream to me – it barely seems worth putting it on to boil – but then if it’s just being used to bind the grated Naples biscuits you probably don’t want to use too much, otherwise you’d end up with a biscuit soup.
Next, add four beaten eggs – bearing in mind that eighteenth century eggs are generally held to have been smaller than twenty-first century eggs, so maybe just use two large or three medium – and mix everything well. Then add in enough raspberry juice for the mixture to turn pink and hopefully have a nice sharpness to it. You can taste-test, if you’re okay with raw eggs, or just hope for the best.
Finally, scoop up dollop of the mixture and form them into balls, roughly the size of walnuts, and drop them into boiling lard. You could probably use a neutral-flavoured oil if you prefer. Again, I’ve gained the impression from somewhere that back in the day the term “boil” used to cover everything from a gentle simmer to a raging maelstrom. So you probably want to err on the side of lower heat, in order to brown, rather than burn, your bright pink, raspberry-flavoured balls.
Finally, serve forth the cooked fritters with bits of candied peel or almonds stuck in them for decoration, and with “green and yellow sweetmeats” laid around them. According to “Chapter X, Observations upon Preserving” said sweetmeats would seem to be fruits preserved in jelly, and elsewhere Mrs Raffald refers to sweetmeats as “rock candy”. So perhaps the term simply referred to any deliberately sweetened, sugary foodstuff? I’m sure someone has done the research, and hopefully I can be pointed at it.
How about you? Do you like the sound of these raspberry fritters? Are they the sort of thing you’d be tempted to have a go at making? Do let me know, via the comments.
Footnotes
- 1I admit, I’m basing this entirely on the pronunciation in the Bellowhead version of the folk song ‘Byker Hill’, in which they sing: “If I had another penny, I would have another gill. I would make the piper play ‘The Bonny Lads of Byker Hill'” ↩︎
