Here it is! The recipe I teased you all about a week ago!
I decided to take a bit of a break from the preserves and do something fresh!
One of my favorite things about summer is getting fresh corn on the cob from the farm stand. I still have very vivid memories of visiting our neighborhood farm stand. I can still see the dusty old floor boards in that shed. The rough boxes that held each type of available produce (peaches, blueberries, strawberries, lettuce, potatoes, green onions). The enclosed glass case up front that held all the goodies, like homemade fudge and cookies! But the most exciting part was the big table with the conveyor belt above it, where the corn, freshly picked just outside, would be placed on the belt and would ride to the top and then fall right into the middle of the table, creating a precarious pyramid. And, around the sides, a sea of corn husks where customers de-husked their corn making sure it was juicy and sound before purchasing it.
It would always be a Saturday morning when we went to the farm stand. Which meant our delicious corn on the cob would be enjoyed with some grilled steaks or chicken legs and a dessert item that would involve fresh summer berries. A perfect summertime meal!
I still love to get fresh corn on the cob this time of year, and still love it accompanied by a grilled steak and a summer berry dessert. But I have also, of late, been experimenting with other recipes that involving using fresh corn (as the “green” in Green Corn Fritters describes) in other ways.
So, when I was looking through one of my newly acquired cookbooks, I saw this and immediately wanted to try it!
Green Corn Fritters
2 Cupfuls of Corn, grated from the cob
2 Eggs
A little Salt
½ Cupful of Milk
½ Cupful of Flour
1 Level tsp of Cream of Tarter
½ level tsp of Soda
“Beat the eggs, then add the milk and salt. Stir the corn into the dry flour, wetting with the milk and eggs, then fry in hot lard.”
Gurney, Lydia Maria Things Mother Used to Make (1912)
So the first part of this was to get the fresh corn off the cob. You could obviously substitute frozen corn if you wanted to, but why would you when fresh corn like this is SO GOOD!
I find that using a bunt cake pan to hold the corn in place while you cut the kernels off is the best and most efficient way. But, if you don’t have a bunt cake pan (or have misplaced yours like I have) then putting an upside-down ramekin in the center of the bowl works just as well. That way you can still cut all the kernels at the bottom of the cob even when the bowl starts to fill up. Just make sure to place the flat side of the corn on the ramekin so that the corn is very stable when being cut. It can get very slippery over time.
There! Two cups of fresh corn!
I had about 8 small ears of corn that I cut and had a little over two cups of kernels. But, of course, that amount would change with the size of the corn ears. So, when doing this recipe, its better to over buy than under buy. Besides, that means more corn on the cob for later!
So, once I had the corn cut from the cob and measured out, I gathered the rest of the ingredients, figuring this batter would come together pretty quickly once started.
Here’s the flour, salt (I put in a heaping tsp), baking soda (which is what she means by “soda”) and cream of tartar.
You can find cream of tartar pretty easily in the spice section of the supermarket. It’s wonderful leavening agent making things light and airy as well as a great stabilizer for egg whites too! So I highly recommend you have some in your pantry. But, if you don’t, then you can substitute 1.5 tsp baking powder to 1 tsp tartar.
I mixed the flour, cream of tartar, salt and baking soda all together and then poured it into the bowl with the corn so it all could be mixed together.
I do realize the salt is supposed to go in with the eggs and milk, but I had set up the salt in the same bowl as the other ingredients and I didn’t feel like fishing it out of there. I didn’t think it would harm anything.
Now for the eggs and the milk, which I mixed together right in the measuring cup.
It is a good idea to crack the eggs into a separate dish in case shell or a bad egg ends up in the mixture. But, honestly, I don’t usually follow that rule myself. So don’t be like me!
Then I poured the egg/milk mixture in with the corn/flour/salt/cream of tartar/baking soda mixture.
It created a nice batter! It had already started to bubble from the baking soda and cream of tartar. It was also more liquid and smooth than I imagined. These would certainly be much more like pancakes than donuts.
Now, while I was mixing the batter, I had vegetable oil heating up in a pan. I know the recipe says lard, but I honestly didn’t have any available at the time. But, sadly, the vegetable oil was bad and the whole kitchen smelled awful when I put the first three fritters into the oil to cook. Needless to say I did not finish cooking those three fritters, dumped out the batter and the bad oil, washed out the pan, dried it, and put a good level of olive oil to heat up.
So, as pictured above, once the olive oil was hot enough I put three 1/8th cupfuls of batter into the pan and cooked the fritters till brown on both sides. Then I placed them on a paper towel lined pan to drain. Then I repeated the process till all the batter was used up!
A word of caution here, because this is hot oil and the corn kernels are fresh and full of water, be wary of them popping in the oil. Needless to say I got splattered a few times with hot oil, luckily not sustaining any injury.
And there they are!
Once they were fried and I had put them on a paper towel lined pan I hit them with a little extra sprinkling of salt. I figured why not, couldn’t hurt!
Then I waited for them to cool below molten level before trying one.
But I can hear you all saying “But how did they taste?!?!?”
In a word… wonderful!
The crispiness of the batter was a great contrast with the soft bursts of warm corn. And, though it didn’t really need the last sprinkling of salt, it was a nice, flavorful treat!
I will say that this recipe is a good basis for other additions. I would like to try it again adding some scallions and black pepper, giving it more of a kick. Or maybe some jalapeno and fresh cilantro. Or green and red pepper with cumin.
The possibilities are endless!