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Croutons
Cut some slices of the crumb of bread half an inch in thickness, into any shape, round, oval, or square, that may be preferred, and fry them in hot clarified fat till they are lightly browned. Drain them from the fat and they are ready to serve. They are used for garnish. Time to fry, five minutes.
A garnish rather than a dish, and one that survives essentially unchanged. The only real variables are the fat, the heat and the bread.
- Clarified fatThe original does not say which fat; clarified beef dripping or clarified butter would both suit, each having had the water and milk solids removed so they will take frying heat without burning. Clarified butter or ghee gives the closest flavour; a neutral oil works but tastes of nothing.
- Bread"The crumb of bread" means the soft interior with the crust cut away. A close-grained day-old white loaf holds its shape; modern soft sandwich bread collapses and drinks fat.
- Fat temperatureAround 340-360F. Too cool and the bread absorbs fat and stays greasy, too hot and the outside colours before the inside dries. The bread should sizzle steadily on contact.
- Five minutes is longThat timing suits a shallow pan of fat kept deliberately moderate. Half-inch croutons in properly hot fat colour in about two minutes, turned once. Judge by colour, not the clock.
- DrainingOnto absorbent paper or a rack, and do it the moment they come out. Croutons left sitting in the pan go soft as the fat cools into them.
- ShapesThe recipe offers rounds, ovals or squares; fried bread cut in shapes of this kind was commonly used as a border garnish for entrees, ragouts and pureed soups. Cut them all the same thickness or they will not brown at the same rate.
- QuantityNo yield is given because none is needed.
- Making aheadThey keep a day in an airtight tin once fully cool and can be refreshed for a few minutes in a 300F oven. They will not keep crisp in a covered dish while still warm.
The word is simply the French croûton, a diminutive of croûte, crust, and it entered English kitchen vocabulary along with the rest of the French professional repertoire in the nineteenth century. A crouton is a component: cooks were expected to have them ready to border a dish of game, to float on a puree, or to carry a salpicon. The instruction to fry in clarified fat is a reminder of how kitchens of the period worked, with a crock of rendered dripping or clarified butter kept to hand and reused, so that a garnish like this cost almost nothing beyond stale bread.