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Dessert

Pecan Fritters

A sweet, candied pecan confection made by cooking sugar and glucose, then coating pecans and cooling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Pecan Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine glucose, sugar, grease, and water in a copper kettle.

  2. Heat the mixture on a furnace.

  3. Stir the mixture with a paddle until it boils.

  4. Insert a thermometer into the mixture.

  5. Cook the mixture until it reaches 300°F (150°C).

  6. Remove the thermometer.

Form the fritters

  1. Add pecans and salt, stirring until well mixed.

  2. Dump the mixture onto a well-greased slab.

  3. Use gloves to handle the slab.

  4. Turn the mixture every few minutes to prevent it from running through the nuts.

  5. Cut pieces the size of a peach.

  6. Place the pieces in a fritter ring.

  7. Spread the pieces to fill the ring.

  8. Lift the ring off.

  9. Repeat with more pieces, working quickly to prevent cooling.

Wrap and store

  1. Once cooled, wrap fritters in thin wax paper.

  2. Stack the wrapped fritters in pans on edge.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Keeps the syrup from crystallising, giving a smooth, chewy texture in the finished fritter.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, with the glucose, builds the hard syrup that binds the nuts.
Pecan halves or pieces
Supply the nut flavour and crunch that the syrup coats and holds together.
Good grease
Adds richness and helps keep the cooked mass soft and easy to shape.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it reaches 300°F (150°C). Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises. Stopping short leaves the fritters soft and sticky, while overcooking makes them brittle and dark, so the thermometer reading matters.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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