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Cod, Croquettes Of
Take the remains of cold cod, remove the skin and bones, and mince one pound very finely with one dozen oysters, or two dozen cockles, a little pepper and salt, and four ounces of finely-grated bread-crumbs; work the mixture well together with a little cream, and make it up into balls about the size of an egg; dip these in beaten egg and bread-crumbs, fry them in hot lard till lightly browned, and serve them piled high on a dish, and garnished with parsley. Time to fry, ten minutes. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold cod and oysters. Allow two croquettes for each person.
A leftovers dish that depends almost entirely on how dry the cooked cod is and how firmly the mixture holds together. Get the binding right and the rest is straightforward frying.
- Squeeze the fish dryCold poached or baked cod holds a surprising amount of water, and wet flakes make croquettes that burst in the fat. Press the flaked fish in a clean towel before mincing, and add the cream a teaspoon at a time — you want a mixture that just coheres, not a paste.
- Chill before shapingThe original goes straight from mixing to shaping. Half an hour in the refrigerator firms the mixture, makes the egg-and-crumb coating adhere, and greatly reduces the chance of the balls breaking up.
- Frying timeTen minutes is far too long for egg-sized balls of already-cooked fish. At 350–375F they need three to four minutes, until the crust is set and golden; the interior only has to be hot through. Longer and the oysters turn to rubber and the crumb coating darkens past pleasant.
- Lard and its substitutesThe recipe specifies lard, a common frying fat of the period, and it gives a clean, crisp crust; any neutral oil with a high smoke point does the same job. Deep-fry in at least two inches of fat, or shallow-fry and turn, but do not crowd the pan.
- Oysters and cocklesA dozen shucked oysters, chopped, or two dozen cockles. Cockles are hard to find outside British fishmongers; small clams, or a few chopped cooked mussels, sit in the same place. Drain shellfish well or you reintroduce the water you just pressed out.
- Bread-crumbs"Finely-grated bread-crumbs" means dry crumbs grated from stale crust, not fresh soft crumbs. Four ounces is about a cup, and it functions as the binder — packaged dried crumbs work, though panko is coarser than intended and gives a spikier crust.
- YieldOne pound of cooked fish plus crumbs, shellfish and cream makes roughly ten to twelve egg-sized balls, so five or six servings at the book's allowance of two apiece.
- ServingDrain briefly on paper before piling them up, and serve at once — the crust softens within minutes. Tartare sauce or a plain melted-butter sauce with lemon suits them better than the bare parsley garnish.
The word croquette appears in English cookery books well before the Victorian period, but the dish was popularised through French practice in the nineteenth century, and by the time Cassell's dictionary was compiled croquettes were a common respectable way to use up cooked fish, meat or poultry from an earlier meal. The costing here — sixpence, "exclusive of the cold cod and oysters" — is as much the point of the entry as the method: the expensive parts are assumed to be already in the house, and the housekeeper is buying only crumbs, egg and cream. Shellfish were considerably cheaper relative to other foods than they are now, though native oyster prices were rising in the later nineteenth century as beds were overfished — which may be why the entry excludes them from the costing rather than treating them as free. Cassell's belonged to a wave of large household reference works aimed at middle-class households, where the ability to turn yesterday's boiled cod into something that could be piled high on a dish and garnished had real value.