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Rice Cutlets
Boil five ounces of rice as if for curry (see RICE, BOILED, FOR CURRY); when cool mix it with seasoning to taste and a little fat bacon or butter--a tea-spoonful of the latter will be sufficient. Add a well-beaten egg, and mould the mass into the shape of cutlets. Egg and bread-crumb the cutlets and fry in boiling fat to a nice brown. Serve with little dishes of meat or fish. Probable cost, 6d.
A simple fried rice croquette, meant as a garnish or side rather than a main. The whole thing hinges on the rice being dry and sticky enough to hold together.
- QuantitiesFive ounces of raw rice is about 3/4 cup, yielding roughly 2 cups cooked. That would make perhaps six to eight small cutlets, though the recipe gives no yield and no number of servings.
- "As if for curry"The cross-reference points to a separate entry; the standard Victorian method was boiling in plenty of salted water until tender, then draining and drying so the grains stay separate. Separate grains bind less readily, so drain well but do not rinse the starch away, and press the mixture firmly when moulding.
- Cool it properlyThe rice must be quite cold before the egg goes in, or the egg begins to set and the mass turns loose. Spreading it on a tray to cool speeds this and drives off steam.
- The bacon"A little fat bacon" most likely means finely chopped fat bacon, which renders during frying and seasons the cutlet from within. A teaspoon of butter is the stated alternative; either way the fat is what keeps the interior from tasting like plain boiled rice.
- SeasoningThe original leaves this entirely open. Salt, pepper, a scrape of nutmeg or a little grated cheese, chopped parsley or curry powder all suit, and this is the point at which the dish becomes worth eating.
- Egg and bread-crumbDip in beaten egg, then fine dry crumbs. Chilling the coated cutlets for twenty minutes firms the shell and greatly reduces the chance of them breaking up in the pan.
- "Boiling fat"Fat hot enough to seize the crumb at once; in modern terms roughly 360-375F, though the book gives no temperature and does not specify depth. Cooler fat soaks in and the cutlets collapse; fry until deep gold and drain on paper.
- Serving"Little dishes of meat or fish" suggests the cutlets were meant as an accompaniment. Modern practice would set them alongside a curry, a stew or a fish dish.
Rice cutlets belong to a broad Victorian family of moulded and fried leftovers u2014 croquettes, rissoles, cutlets u2014 built on the principle that a household could not afford to waste cooked rice or cold meat, and dressing them in egg and crumbs turned economy into something presentable. The cross-reference to rice "boiled for curry" is telling: by the time Cassell's dictionary appeared, Anglo-Indian cookery had arguably done much to familiarise British cooks with dry, separate-grained boiled rice, and the shaped cutlet with its bacon and crumb coating might be read as that staple recast in an English idiom. The stated cost of sixpence marks it as a cheap dish for a household watching its accounts, and the instruction to serve it with "little dishes of meat or fish" places it as a supporting player on the table rather than the centre of a meal.