National Fritters Day on December 2nd allows for no frittering away of the time. Make haste and get them while they are hot!
- Fritters are believed to have first been consumed by Ancient Romans. They then introduced them to Europe.
- 1500s: The batter-frying technique was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese and Spanish in the late 16th century.
- The first historical record of the fritter dates back to 1665. Samuel Pepys, an Englishman who served as a Member of Parliament during the English Restoration period, noted in his diary that he would be enjoying some fritters before Lent!
- In 1887, President Grover Cleveland served a parsnip variety fritter for Thanksgiving at the white house according to Gourmet.com. The ingredients were boiled parsnips with flour, egg and salt. After larding the hot pan, the parsnip mixture is spooned in and fried till “delicate brown”
- “Fritter” derives from the Latin word frictura which translates as fried or to fry.
- Fritter, any of three types of fried foods.
- Plain fritters are deep-fried cakes of chou paste or a yeast dough.
- In a second type bits of meat, seafood, vegetables, or fruit are coated with a batter and deep fried.
- Small cakes of chopped food in batter, such as corn fritters in the southern United States, are also called fritters.
- Fritters are extremely popular roadside snacks all over South Asia and are commonly referred to as pakora.
- The Burmese a-kyaw is popularly made with a rich gourd filling, and are typically served with tea, or for breakfast.
- In Indonesia, fritters are called gorengan, with one of the most popular being pisand goring, a banana based fritter.
- One type of fritter you may not have realized you’ve had is Tempura. That’s right, that delicious battered and fried dish from your favorite Japanese restaurant is also considered a fritter.
- The French beignets, Italian bigne, and Greek loukoumades are sweet cakes of the first type of fritter.
- The Indian pakora is a savory deep-fried cake containing bits of cauliflower, eggplant, or other vegetables.
- Fritto misto is an Italian dish of bits of meat, seafood, and vegetables dipped in batter and fried in olive oil.
- A specialty dish of various local cuisines is the flower fritter, using daylilies, roses, violets, acacia, elder blow, and squash blossoms.
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