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Rice Cassolettes
The rice must be prepared as directed in the recipe, RICE, CASSEROLE OF, but must be put into smaller moulds, those called dariole or custard moulds; and the mould must be buttered all round, or you may use the fat from the rice as above. Mind that the cassolettes are to be quite cold before you take them out of the mould. The best method of filling up the cassolettes is to take a carrot, and cut it a proper large size, to make a hole in the rice; this hole you fill up with a mince of fowl, with bechamel sauce. This mince must be thoroughly cold. When you fill up the mould with the rice, close it, without allowing any of the mince to be mixed with the rice, in which case the casso-lettes would break in the dripping when you fry them. To prevent this accident, dip them in beaten egg and crumbs once, and put them into very hot dripping. It is to be observed, that in making cassolettes the rice must be made quite firm; and that they require something of a white colour to be added; as a mince with white sauce, a mince of palates and of mushrooms a l'Allemande, or fillets of fish with bechamel sauce, etc. You may likewise give them a light brown colour in the oven, the same as other casseroles of rice, but frying is the best and quickest way.
A fried rice case with a cold filling sealed inside — essentially a moulded croquette. Everything depends on the rice being stiff and the whole thing being cold.
- The hinge: cold and firmBoth the rice and the filling must be refrigerator-cold and the rice stiff enough to hold a cut edge. Warm rice or a loose filling will burst in the fat, which is what the original means by "break in the dripping."
- The rice itselfThe cross-referenced recipe (Rice, Casserole of) appears to call for rice cooked down in stock until stiff and sticky rather than fluffy. Short-grain rice such as arborio or pudding rice cooked in strong chicken stock until it stops moving in the pan gives the right texture; long-grain will not bind.
- Dariole and custard mouldsDariole moulds are small straight-sided metal cups of roughly 3-4 fl oz (90-120 ml). Timbale moulds, dariole tins or even non-stick muffin cups work; butter them and, if you like, line the base with a disc of parchment.
- The carrot trickA thick piece of raw carrot is used as a plug to press a cavity into the rice, then withdrawn so the hole can be filled and capped with more rice. An apple corer or the handle of a wooden spoon does the same job.
- Dripping and frying temperature"Very hot dripping" implies deep fat somewhere in the region of 350-375F (180-190C); the original gives no temperature. Dripping in such kitchens was commonly beef, but any high-smoke-point fat is fine. Fry only until the crumb is deep gold, two to three minutes — the filling is already cooked, so longer only softens the case.
- Egg and crumbs "once"A single coating is specified: beaten egg and fine dry crumbs, no double dip (the original mentions no flour). Let the coated cassolettes rest cold for 20-30 minutes before frying so the crust sets against the rice.
- Palates"A mince of palates" means ox palate, a soft offal cut sold in Victorian butchers' shops and effectively unobtainable now. Substitute cooked mushrooms, sweetbreads if you can get them, or simply more minced fowl.
- Béchamel and allemandeThe fillings are bound thick, not saucy — a béchamel stiff enough to slice when chilled. Allemande is a velouté enriched with egg yolk and lemon; a thick velouté finished with yolk gives the same pale colour the recipe insists on.
- Yield and servingThe original gives no quantities. As a rough guide, rice made from about 8 oz (225 g) dry rice should fill six to eight dariole moulds. Serve hot, with a little of the same sauce loosened and poured around.
Cassolette is generally traced to the French cassole, a small pot, and in nineteenth-century professional cookery it named both the little mould and the shaped case turned out of it. It is really a technique: stiff savoury rice used as an edible container, the same idea that produces rice borders, timbales and croustades in the French repertoire of the Carême and Gouffé generations. The insistence on "something of a white colour" for the filling reflects the period's careful colour grammar, in which a pale mince bound with béchamel or allemande was the correct interior for a fried golden case, and the alternative of browning in the oven is offered only grudgingly. Dishes of this kind were labour-intensive, and they survive in spirit wherever a cooked rice paste is stuffed and fried.