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Sole Croquettes
Take the remains of cold cooked sole, lift the flesh from the bones, and tear it into flakes with two forks; then put it into a saucepan with a small proportion of white sauce, the yolks of three eggs, and a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. A quarter of a tea-spoonful of chopped onion may be added if liked, or the saucepan can be rubbed with a freshly-cut onion. Stir the mixture over the fire for a few minutes till the eggs are set, spread it on a dish, and leave it in a cool place till it is firm and cold. Divide the croquette-meat into equal-sized parts, and roll these to the shape of corks or balls. Dip them in an egg which has been beaten up with a tea-spoonful of oil and a little salt and pepper, roll them in bread-crumbs, and fry in hot fat till they are crisp and lightly coloured. Drain them from the fat, sprinkle a little salt upon them, and serve on a dish covered with a napkin. Garnish with fried parsley. Time to fry the croquettes, about ten minutes. Probable cost of croquettes made with a pound of sole, 8d., exclusive of the cold fish. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian way with leftover fish, and a sound one: the technique is a thick panade-style bind, chilled hard, then breaded and fried. Two things in the original need adjusting — the vagueness of the sauce quantity and the frying time.
- The hinge: chill it properlyThe bound mixture must be genuinely cold and firm before shaping, or the croquettes will burst in the fat. Spread it no more than an inch thick, cover, and refrigerate at least two hours; overnight is better.
- How much white sauce"A small proportion" is unhelpfully vague. For a pound of flaked cooked sole, about 1/2 cup of very thick béchamel (roughly 2 tbsp each butter and flour to 1 cup milk) is right. The mixture should hold a ridge when stirred, not flow.
- Three yolks is a lotWith a pound of fish, three yolks plus thick sauce gives a firm, almost custardy bind. Two yolks makes a lighter croquette if you prefer the fish to dominate.
- Cooking the egg mixtureStir over low heat only until the mass thickens and pulls from the pan side — a minute or two. Push it further and the yolks scramble, leaving a grainy texture no amount of chilling will fix.
- Frying timeTen minutes is far too long for a croquette of cooked fish the size of a cork. In fat at 350–375°F they need 2–3 minutes, until crisp and pale gold.
- Fried parsleyDry, curly parsley dropped into the same hot fat for 20–30 seconds, then drained. It spits — the sprigs must be thoroughly dry before they go in.
- The napkinServing fried food on a folded napkin was standard in period service; it absorbed fat and hid a plain dish. A wire rack over a warm plate does the job with less laundry.
- Fish and yieldAny firm cooked white fish works — plaice, haddock, cod. As written this serves four or five as a light course, or two or three as a main with a salad.
The croquette was, in the Victorian kitchen, a standard respectable answer to the problem of yesterday's dinner. The word comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and the form was established in British cookery largely through French-trained chefs and manuals of the nineteenth century, where a cold bound mixture, egged, crumbed and fried, could turn the tail of a fish or the last of a joint into a course that looked deliberate. The costing — eightpence "exclusive of the cold fish" — sits alongside the method, telling a household with an eye on the accounts what the transformation costs. Sole was among the more expensive flatfish of the period, and the alternative offered here of rubbing the saucepan with a cut onion instead of adding chopped onion is a nicety of the same school, flavouring without asserting.