% I /HE Fat. — The fat for frying doughnuts and fritters may be any \\ ' soft fat free from rancidity, which is at hand; pure leaf lard, (^ I te for this purpose, was once considered indispensable, but soft suet, or the fat trimmed from the outside of fat beef, is excellent, combined with lard; also clarified drippings from roasted meat, either beef or pork. A small proportion of the hard kidney suet of beef may be added, but if hard suet is in excess in frying fat, food cooked therein will have a thick, tallowy crust, which is neither palatable nor digestible. Cottonseed oil, alone, or in combination with a small jiroportion of beef suet is used by some cooks; others dislike it. With this, as with some other food preparations, the taste may perhaps be acquired. Mutton fat should never be added to the frying kettle, or used in any way; as stated elsewhere, the strong odoi to which many people have a great aversion, is intensified by reheat- ing; besides, it is the hardest of animal fats, and cools too quickly on food cooked in it. If black specks adhere to the doughnuts after they are fried, put a few slices of raw potato in the fat, and the specks will adhere to the potato. If lard or drippings are not per- fectly sweet, before putting in any dough put in some slices of raw potato and fry them; the potatoes will absorb the rank flavor. A few slices of raw potatoes in the kettle while cooking doughnuts will keep the odor from permeating the house. Potatoes are largely composed of starch and carbon and they purify the fat in much the same way that water is purified by charcoal; being very porous, and possessing great powers of absorption, they take up the gases and odors, thus puri- fying the fat. The Kettle — A kettle should be kept for the purpose of frying doughnuts and fritters, and one rounded at the bottom, broad, and shallow, is the most convenient shape. Clarifying Fat — The frying fat must be clarified from time to time, as more or less flour falls to the bottom of the kettle whenever it is used; the fat can be poured while still warm — not hot — into a pan of water, and the settlings scraped from the cake of fat when it is cold; a more simple way is to set the kettle away with the fat in it to cool, and when next wanted for use set on the fire just long enough to start the cake of fat in the kettle; lift it from the kettle with a carving fork, and with a knife cut the black from the cake of fat, wipe out the kettle with papers and put them in the fire; then return DOUGHNUTS, CKULLERS, ETC. 339 the fat to the kettle and add more if needed. The dirty looking sedi- ment is commonly thrown away, but it need not be altogether wasted; when a considerable quantity has accumulated it may be clarified by the second method described for clarifying fats in our article on fry- ing meats, etc. (which see).

AI-modernized reading of the original text

% I /HE Fat. — The fat for frying doughnuts and fritters may be any \\ ' soft fat free from rancidity, which is at hand; pure leaf lard, (^ I te for this purpose, was once considered indispensable, but soft suet, or the fat trimmed from the outside of fat beef, is excellent, combined with lard; also clarified drippings from roasted meat, either beef or pork. A small proportion of the hard kidney suet of beef may be added, but if hard suet is in excess in frying fat, food cooked therein will have a thick, tallowy crust, which is neither palatable nor digestible. Cottonseed oil, alone, or in combination with a small jiroportion of beef suet is used by some cooks; others dislike it. With this, as with some other food preparations, the taste may perhaps be acquired. Mutton fat should never be added to the frying kettle, or used in any way; as stated elsewhere, the strong odoi to which many people have a great aversion, is intensified by reheating; besides, it is the hardest of animal fats, and cools too quickly on food cooked in it. If black specks adhere to the doughnuts after they are fried, put a few slices of raw potato in the fat, and the specks will adhere to the potato. If lard or drippings are not perfectly sweet, before putting in any dough put in some slices of raw potato and fry them; the potatoes will absorb the rank flavor. A few slices of raw potatoes in the kettle while cooking doughnuts will keep the odor from permeating the house. Potatoes are largely composed of starch and carbon and they purify the fat in much the same way that water is purified by charcoal; being very porous, and possessing great powers of absorption, they take up the gases and odors, thus purifying the fat. The Kettle — A kettle should be kept for the purpose of frying doughnuts and fritters, and one rounded at the bottom, broad, and shallow, is the most convenient shape. Clarifying Fat — The frying fat must be clarified from time to time, as more or less flour falls to the bottom of the kettle whenever it is used; the fat can be poured while still warm — not hot — into a pan of water, and the settlings scraped from the cake of fat when it is cold; a more simple way is to set the kettle away with the fat in it to cool, and when next wanted for use set on the fire just long enough to start the cake of fat in the kettle; lift it from the kettle with a carving fork, and with a knife cut the black from the cake of fat, wipe out the kettle with papers and put them in the fire; then return DOUGHNUTS, CRULLERS, ETC. 339 the fat to the kettle and add more if needed. The dirty looking sediment is commonly thrown away, but it need not be altogether wasted; when a considerable quantity has accumulated it may be clarified by the second method described for clarifying fats in our article on frying meats, etc. (which see).

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