ROUND THE TABLE

Some twenty years ago, in a street where I lived in an Italian town, was a wine-sliop, at the door of which stood a man who got his living by vending various kinds of vegetables and sundry preparations of flour fried in oil or lard. The operation of frying was conducted on the spot in the open air. The trade was brisk at all times, and this frying man was a great ally of the wine- shop, for his wares, being plentifully sprinkled with salt, helped to draw custom. But it was not to all of his customers that he was so bountiful of that condiment ; for if any of the neighbouring gentry sent to him for a dish of frittura, as many often did, he would produce a piatto , of which any cook might have been proud.

In Italy ton piatto di frittura — a dish of fried things — seldom fails to appear at most tables. The things are almost too numerous to mention ; leaves and sprigs of borage, flowers of vegetable marrow, flowers of acacia, sliced vegetable marrow, potatoes, celery, artichokes, &c., &c. ; then some small fish, like whitebait, called fmvaglie, and molluscs of various kinds, purpe (a species of octopus) and several varieties of calamari (a sort of sepia) ; but the latter are among the best. All these are either floured or dipped in batter before frying, and with the batter itself ( pastetta ) many oddly-shaped morsels are prepared, with or without the addition of Indian corn flour, semolina, &c.

The frier above referred to knew his business right well, and I will endeavour in this paper to set forth some of the first principles thereof, premising that I write for those who know nothing whatever about it, and that what may be fulsome truisms to professors of the art, are valuable hints to the uninitiated.

Frying is of two kinds, which may be termed the dry and the wet process. The former is typified by the cooking of an omelette or a pancake, and butter only should be used for this purpose. Fish, vegetables, rissoles, croquets, fritters, &c., should be wet fried — i.e., in plenty of fat, so that they swim in, and are completely surrounded by it. Lard, oil, or dripping may be used, lard being unquestionably the best frying medium. Only such things as do not require long frying may be fried in oil, for at a certain temperature it acquires a disagreeable taste, and cannot be used again ; whilst lard, if properly attended to, will remain sweet and fit to use, for frying pur- poses, for many weeks. This is what is to be done. As soon as you have removed the things fried, throw into the frying-pan a handful of salt, and pour off the lard into an earthen pot, leaving out the sediment which will have formed at the bottom. The way to manage is to have three pots with a supply of lard. No. 1, you will use to fry sweets (fritters, &c.) ; No. 2, to fry savouries (croquets, &c.) ; No. 3, to fry fish. Begin with fresh lard in pot No. 1 ; having used it once or twice, transfer it to No. 2 ; and when it has done duty there pass it on to No. 8. Dripping may be all very well, but, clarify it as you like, you can never produce the same golden tints as when lard — good, sweet lard — is used; but, of course, good dripping is better than bad lard.

Carcme prefers beef fat to all other frying mediums, but what he means, however, is not the dripping collected from