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Frankfritters & Popcorn Cookies

Subject: Frankfritters & Popcorn Cookies
From: Beth
Date: 2/20/2019, 8:02 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

On 2/19/2019 5:14 PM, Beth wrote:

Dear Uncle Phaedrus,

When we were kids, me and my cousins, all of us about the same age, would gather at 
my grandparents' house every summer for a week on their farm. My Grandma would 
always cook special things for us during that week. Two things that I remember and 
wish I could get the recipes for are something she called "frankfritters," and a cookie 
she called "popcorn cookies." "Frankfritters" were fried sort of like a corn dog, but 
with no stick and I don't think they had corn meal in the batter. This was in the 1950s. 
Grandma passed away many years ago, and I don't know what happened to her 
recipes. Can you help?

Beth

Hi Beth,

I had some success with these recipes, but you should remember that there may be more than one recipe with those names, and the one that I found may not be the same as your grandma's. I tried to look for older recipes, but it's very difficult to find a particular recipe on the internet that's from a particular time period because people don't put dates for recipes when they post them. These are from a cookbook called "Forgotten Recipes" by Jaine Rodack. This cookbook says that it contains recipes from magazines from the first half of the 20th century, but it doesn't tell the source magazine for each recipe, just the date. Recipes with the names of both of your requests were in this cookbook. I keep wanting to call "Frankfritters" by the name "Frankenfritters"...(grin) See below.

Phaed

Frankfritters (1933)

Hot Dogs:

1 pound hot dogs
2 tablespoons prepared mustard

Prick your hot dogs and cook in boiling water for 10 minutes. When they are cool,
slit them(lengthwise) just enough to spread some mustard inside each one. 
Put them back in their original shape, and set aside.

Batter:

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
oil for deep frying

Beat eggs well; add milk and shortening. Sift your dry ingredients; add them to your 
egg mixture and beat til well blended. Fill a frying pan (make sure it's nice and deep) 
2/3 full with your vegetable oil. When the oil gets hot (about 370 degrees) you're ready. 
To test the temperature just place a bread cube in the oil and if it browns in 60 seconds 
you're ready to continue. Now, dip each hot dog into the batter. Fry your fritters til 
brown, and drain on paper towels. For an unusual treat, pour hot tomato sauce over 
them at serving time.
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Popcorn Cookies (1948)

2 egg whites (beaten til stiff while adding the sugar below gradually)
2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons margarine or butter, melted
1 1/2 cups minced popcorn
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small package blanched almonds, toasted

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add sugar, beating constantly 
until soft peaks form. Set aside. Combine margarine  and popped corn together; 
fold in beaten egg whites. Add salt and vanilla. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls on to 
a well-greased cookie sheet. Decorate with nuts. Bake at 325 degrees for 7 minutes.