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CHICKEN OR BEEF CROQUETTES
Take cold chicken, or roast or boiled beef or veal, mince very fine, moisten with the cold gravy if at hand, or moisten well, and add one egg, season with pepper, salt and an onion or sage; make into small cakes, cover with egg and bread-crumbs, and fry in lard and butter. One cup fresh boiled rice may be added before making into cakes.
A leftovers recipe with no measurements beyond the egg, so proportions are yours to judge. The one thing that decides success is moisture: the mixture must be wet enough to hold together and dry enough to hold a shape.
- Working quantitiesAbout 2 cups finely minced cooked meat, 1 egg, and 2-4 tablespoons gravy or stock makes six to eight small cakes, enough for three or four people. Add liquid a spoonful at a time until the mass just coheres when squeezed.
- The binding problemMany nineteenth-century croquettes were bound with a thick white sauce; this version relies on egg, gravy and optional rice, which is a looser bind. Chilling the shaped cakes for half an hour before breading helps them hold their shape in the fat.
- "Cover with egg and bread-crumbs"Beat a second egg with a spoonful of water for the coating, and use dry fine crumbs rather than fresh. Flour first, then egg, then crumbs, gives the most reliable crust on a soft mixture.
- The onionRaw minced onion will not cook through in the few minutes the cakes are in the pan and will stay harsh and crunchy. Sweat it in butter first and cool it before mixing.
- SageThe recipe does not specify fresh or dried; if you use dried rubbed sage, about half a teaspoon for 2 cups of meat is plenty. Sage was a common poultry seasoning in this period, and its older proportions can taste strong to present-day palates.
- Lard and butterLard stands up to the heat better than butter, while butter supplies flavour and browning; the recipe does not say why the two are combined. Shallow-fry in about a quarter inch of fat over medium heat, 3-4 minutes a side, until deep gold. Butter used alone is liable to burn before the crust sets.
- RiceOne cup of boiled rice to 2 cups of meat is a lot; it stretches the dish, which is the point in a chapter called Fragments, but it dilutes flavour. Season more assertively if you use it, and be sure the rice is cold and dry.
- Reheating cooked meatEverything here is already cooked, so the frying is for crust and colour, not safety. Use meat that has been refrigerated, not left standing, and serve the cakes hot from the pan.
Croquettes belong to the great nineteenth-century project of using up cold joints without admitting to it -- mince, bind, breadcrumb, fry, and the Sunday roast reappears on Tuesday looking like something intended. The word comes from the French croquer, to crunch. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, compiled by Estelle Woods Wilcox from contributed receipts and issued in the later 1870s, files this one under "Fragments," a chapter heading that says a good deal about the economy of a household that bought meat by the joint and had little refrigeration. The vagueness of the measurements is not carelessness: the cook was expected to work from whatever the platter held.