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Beef Croquettes
Finely mince a little dressed beef, season it pleasantly, and moisten it with a little stiff white sauce that is a jelly when cold. Spread it on a dish, and when firm divide it into parts, and form these into corks or balls. Dip them twice in egg and bread-crumbs, place them in a wire basket if it is at hand, and fry in hot fat to a golden-brown colour. Drain them, dish them on a napkin, and garnish with parsley. Time to fry, ten minutes.
A leftovers dish built on a simple principle: cooked meat bound with a sauce stiff enough to set solid in the refrigerator, then breaded and fried. Get the binder right and the rest follows.
- "Dressed beef"Cooked beef, typically the remains of a roast or boiled joint. Trim gristle and heavy fat before mincing; the croquette has no cooking time in which to soften anything tough.
- The binding sauce is the hingeThe recipe asks only for a white sauce stiff enough to set as a jelly when cold; in practice that means a very thick sauce, on the order of 2-4 tablespoons each butter and flour to a cup of milk or stock, cooked out properly and chilled until firm. Loose sauce means croquettes that burst in the fat.
- ProportionsAbout one part thick sauce to three parts minced meat by volume. Enough to hold the mince together and no more; too much and the interior turns to paste.
- Chill twiceSpread the mixture no more than an inch deep and refrigerate until cold and solid before shaping, then chill the breaded croquettes again for 30 minutes. Cold croquettes hold their shape in hot fat.
- "Dip them twice in egg and bread-crumbs"A genuine double coat: egg, crumb, egg, crumb. This is what seals the croquette, and skipping the second pass is the usual reason they leak.
- Frying timeTen minutes is long for something already cooked, though the figure may be meant for a whole basketful. At 350-375F individual croquettes need two to three minutes, until deep golden; the filling only has to reach serving heat. Longer and the crust darkens while the inside dries.
- The wire basketA frying basket, the ancestor of the deep-fryer basket, lets you lift several at once before they overcook. A slotted spoon does the same job if you fry in small batches so the fat does not drop below temperature.
- "Dish them on a napkin"Victorian service placed fried food on a folded linen napkin to absorb fat at the table. Paper towel first, then the napkin if you want the look.
- Yield and servingA pound of cooked beef with its sauce gives about a dozen croquettes, enough for four as a light main course. Tomato sauce or a sharp brown gravy is a common accompaniment, though this recipe calls only for a parsley garnish.
Croquettes belong to the nineteenth-century economy of the joint: a large piece of meat roasted on one day reappeared minced, potted, hashed or fried for several days afterwards, and the cookery books of the period devote whole chapters to what they called rechauffés or "warmed-up dishes". The name comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and the technique — chilled panada-bound forcemeat, egged, crumbed and deep-fried — was carried into English kitchens by French-trained chefs.