Failure in the accomplishment of the many excel-lent dishes which come under the head of "fritters" may be fairly attributed to three things: the first, ignorance in making the batter; the second, a wrongly shaped utensil; and the third, an insufficient use of the frying medium. If you once master these cardinal points, and can drum them into the head of your Ramasamy, you will have at your command a tasty and, indeed, artistic method of cookery upon which you can always rely with confidence. The charm of fritter cooking is its simplicity. The mixing of a good batter merely depends upon the accurate following of the recipe before you, whilst the culinary operation itself presents no difficulty whatever, provided a liberal supply of fat be given out, and the vessel used be a proper one. The beginner, as a rule, overcomes this part of his education after a few trials, and thenceforward has no apprehension concerning success.

Tasty fritters, sweet, as well as savoury, can be made with vegetables, and fruit; fish, both fresh, and cooked; remains of cold meats, pounded cheese, and lastly, by batter, pure, and unassisted, in the form of "beignets souffles," etc.

As the main point in this kind of frying consists in providing a bath of fat for the thing-to-be-cooked, it is essential that we should choose a deep, rather than a broad and shallow vessel, for the operation. The ordinary frying-pan sold at hard-ware shops is of no use whatever for this branch of the cook's work. The pan you want should look like a stew-pan with double handles, and its sides cut down half-way; its diameter need not exceed eight or nine inches. It may be as heavy as you like, for it must, of necessity, be kept steady over the fire when in use. A handle like that of an omelette-pun is therefore unnecessary, for you never require to shake a, friture-pan.

Opinions differ as to the best frying medium. The great Careme advocated the use of the fat skimmed from the surface of the pot-au-feu after having been carefully strained through muslin. Clarified suet, for which I give directions in my chapter on pastry, is favorably regarded by Gouffe. Butter is hardly to be recommended for this kind of frying as it heats very quickly and is apt to burn. Oil is, of course, an excellent medium, but it is difficult to get good out in India, and too expensive. Lard (imported) may be used, but I do not like it even in England for it always adheres to a certain extent to the thing fried. Good Indian ghee made at home, or procured fresh and then clarified as recommended for suet, is by no means to be despised; that sold on the Neilgherries is, as a rule, excellent.

Besides your pan, for delicate fritter work there is nothing more useful than the wire frying-basket, - a cheap thing enough, and not hard to make. Provided with this utensil, which may be described as an open-work, draining-pan, slightly smaller in diameter than the friture-pan, the whole process of working may be thus described:-

1. - Make your batter, to begin with, according to one of the receipts hereafter given, and place it in its bowl on one side, covered up from flies, dust, etc.

2. - Prepare your fish, meat, vegetable, fruit, or whatever you are going to cook, and arrange the pieces on a flat dish, on a table handy, with the bowl of batter next to it.

3. - Take your friture-pan, see that it is thoroughly clean, and dry.

4. - Set it on the griddle rest, over a good bright charcoal fire, and empty the fat, or whatever you use as a frying medium, into it bountifully.

5. - When melted, the fat ought to be quite two inches deep.

6. - Determine if the fat be hot enough by throwing a sippet of bread into it: if the sippet fizzes, and produces large air bubbles, the fritter bath is ready.

7. - Now, dip your morsel-to-be-fried into the batter, which should be of sufficient consistency to coat it nicely; plunge the frying-basket into the fat, and slide the fritter into it.

8. - The fritter must be covered by the fat, not partly in, and partly out of it. Fan the fire now vigorously.

9. - Let it frizzle, and when of a rich golden tint, lift up the basket, and hold it a moment or two over the pan so that its contents may drain.

10. - Lay each fritter, as you take it from the basket, on a dry clean cloth, or on a sheet of new blotting paper, to complete the draining.

11. - When dry, dish it in a very hot dish, and, if a savoury fritter, give it a dust of finely powdered salt; if a sweet one, shake a canopy of powdered loaf sugar over it.

12. - Fritters can be fried one after another. Never put in more than the pan can easily hold at one time.

The fat should now be poured through muslin into a clean bowl: it will harden, and be fit for work again, until it assumes a leaden tint, which may take place after it has been used two or three times. Fat in which fish has once been fried must be reserved afterwards for fish only, as it acquires a fishy taste.

If you follow these rules closely, you ought never to fail to turn out nice fritters, provided, of course, that your batter be properly made. I cannot too strongly impress upon you the necessity of attention to this part of the work which so many cooks slur over carelessly. I have adopted as a standard batter in my own kitchen one recommended by the "G. C," whose advice I have so often quoted in these pages. Friends who have tried it at my recommendation have generally commended it. You must proceed in this way :-

Beat up the yolks of three eggs with two table-spoonfuls of brandy, one table-spoonful of the best salad oil, and four or five table-spoonfuls of cold water. Incorporate with this mixture three table-spoonfuls of flour and a salt-spoonful of salt. The flour should be dry, and the best imported. "Work this now, with care, to a smooth paste, and continue to beat it for at least ten minutes. If the batter appear too thick, add a little water until its consistency be satisfactory, i.e.:- it should cover the spoon when lifted out of it with a coating about the eighth of an inch thick. This stage having been reached, take the whites of the three eggs, and whip them to a stiff froth : stir this into your batter at the time of using.