Watch our historic foodways staff cook this recipe, then try it at home
May is the month for strawberries in Virginia. This French recipe works well with any fruit.
18th Century
Make a paste with some flour, a spoonfull of brandy, half a glass of white wine, the whites of two eggs beat and green lemon shred fine. Mix it well, neither too thick nor too thin. It should rope in falling from a spoon. Dip some large strawberrys in to it, fry them and glaze them with a salamander.
— Menon. “French Family Cook”
21st Century
Ingredients
- 1 lb. all-purpose flour
- 5-8 oz. of white wine
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Tbsp. brandy
- zest of two lemons (approximately 2 tsp.)
- 2 lb. strawberries
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 lb. of lard or peanut oil
Instructions
- Make a batter with the first four ingredients. Add the lemon zest. The batter is right when it resembles a medium pancake batter and can make a rope or a figure eight in the bowl as it drips from a spoon.
- Dunk the strawberries in the batter and then set them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. When the pan is full, put it in the refrigerator for about an hour.
- Melt the lard in a frying pan. When the lard has reached 360 degrees on a thermometer, fry the strawberries in the hot fat.
- Fry them a nice brown, then dust them with sugar.
- Put the sugared strawberries under a broiler for a minute or two to melt the sugar.