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Fish, Croquettes Of
Mix over the fire a tea-spoonful of flour, an ounce of butter, and half a gill of cream. Take off the fire, and add the yolk of an egg, a little seasoning, and half a pound of cold dressed fish beaten to a paste. Let the mixture cool, and form it into balls, let these be egged and breaded. Fry to a nice brown in hot fat, and serve with gravy, made by boiling down the bones, fins, and tails with an onion. Add an anchovy and seasoning to taste. Probable cost of this quantity, exclusive of cold fish, 4d.
A Victorian way of using up yesterday's boiled fish. The method is sound, but two things in the text need attention: the binder is thinner than modern practice would allow, and the mixture must be thoroughly cold before it is shaped.
- Half a gillAn imperial gill is 5 fl oz (about 142 ml), so half a gill is roughly 2.5 fl oz, about 70 ml, of cream.
- The binder is very slackOne teaspoon of flour to an ounce of butter and 1/4 cup cream gives a sauce far looser than the stiff panada croquettes normally rely on. Expect to use a tablespoon or more of flour, and cook the roux and cream until it pulls away from the pan in a mass, or the balls will not hold their shape in the fat.
- Cold dressed fish"Dressed" here means cooked, not raw. Any firm cooked white fish, salmon or smoked haddock works; pick it over carefully for bones and skin before pounding.
- Chill before shapingThe instruction to let the mixture cool is the hinge of the recipe. Refrigerate it until genuinely firm, at least an hour, then shape, egg and crumb. Warm mixture bursts its coating and the croquettes fall apart in the fryer.
- Frying temperatureThe text says only "hot fat". By modern practice that would be 350-375F (175-190C): below that the crumb soaks; above it the coating colours before the centre is hot. Two to three minutes gives the "nice brown" wanted, as the filling is already cooked.
- The gravyThe recipe says to boil the bones, fins and tails down with an onion, but this is closer to a fish fumet than a long stock. Twenty to thirty minutes is generally reckoned enough, as fish bones are commonly said to give bitter, gluey results if simmered much longer. Strain, then finish with the anchovy.
- AnchovyThe period ingredient was a salted anchovy or a spoon of anchovy essence. A teaspoon of anchovy paste, or one oil-packed fillet mashed into the hot liquid, does the same job. Salt only after it has dissolved.
- YieldHalf a pound of fish makes roughly eight small croquettes, enough for two as a main course or four as a first course.
Croquettes were one of the great engines of Victorian thrift: a way of turning the remains of a boiled turbot or salmon into something that could be sent to table in its own right, with a sauce built from the very bones the fish had been carved off. The technique itself is French in origin, the name from croquer, to crunch, and the standard method is a stiff white panada bound with egg yolk, chilled, shaped, crumbed and deep-fried. The anchovy in the gravy is a very English touch, part of a long habit of using salted anchovy or its bottled essences as a savoury seasoning in fish sauces, in the same family as the ketchups and essences that filled a nineteenth-century store cupboard.