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CROUSTADES, OR DRESDEN PATTIES (another way)
Croustades are very nice cut from a French roll, as above, then dipped in a little milk, and drained, brushed over with egg, dipped in bread-crumbs, and fried. They may be filled either with sweets or a savoury mince. Care must be taken not to break them. Time to fry, a few minutes.
A Victorian bread case, hollowed from a roll and fried in a coating of egg and crumb. The instructions assume you have read the preceding entry, where the roll is cut into a shape and scooped out to leave a shell.
- "As above" means a hollow caseThe preceding entry has the roll cut to shape and scooped out to leave a shell. This entry gives no wall thickness, and does not say whether a lid is cut off and kept.
- Use bread a day or two oldA "French roll" here is a small white roll of the period, not a modern soft dinner roll. Fresh bread tears when hollowed and drinks the milk; day-old crumb holds its shape.
- The milk is a dip, not a soakIn and straight out, then drained. More than a second or two and the case collapses in the pan or splits when the egg goes on.
- Frying temperatureFrying -- the recipe says only "fried," with no depth of fat or temperature given. If deep-frying, the usual modern range is 350-375F: below that the bread absorbs oil, above it the crumb colours before the case is crisp through. The "few minutes" specified is likely two or three.
- Drain and fill hotInvert on kitchen paper to let oil out of the cavity, then fill just before serving. A filled case left standing goes soft from the inside.
- Filling consistencySavoury mince here means a bound mixture -- cooked meat or game in a thick reduced sauce, not a loose ragout. Anything thin will soak through the base. Sweet versions take a stiff fruit puree or thick pastry cream.
- YieldOne roll gives one croustade. The recipe gives no yield or number of servings.
Croustade comes through French from the Italian crostata, from crosta, crust -- an edible container, whether of pastry, fried bread, or shaped potato. The alternative name, Dresden patties, appears fairly widely in nineteenth-century English cookery books without explanation; the connection with Dresden ware is a common suggestion rather than a documented origin. The appeal to a Victorian kitchen was practical: a bread case gives the effect of a vol-au-vent without puff paste. The same hollowed-and-fried shell carries whatever the larder offers -- yesterday's game, a little chicken in bechamel, or a spoonful of jam.