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Veal, Croquettes Of
Remove the skin, gristle, and sinew from some cold cooked veal. Mince it finely, and with one pound of veal mince four ounces of ham, tongue, or bacon. Season the mixture with salt, white pepper, and grated nutmeg, and put it in a saucepan; stir for a quarter of an hour over a gentle fire with an ounce of butter rolled in flour, one table-spoonful of thick cream, and one table-spoonful of very strong stock made from the bones and trimmings of the veal. Turn the preparation upon a dish, and spread it to a smooth layer about an inch thick. Let it get quite cold and stiff, then form it to the shape of small balls of corks. Egg and bread-crumb the croquettes, and leave them in a cool place for an hour; then egg and bread-crumb them again. Put them into a wire frying-basket, plunge them into boiling fat, and let them remain until they are brightly browned all over. Drain them thoroughly, serve on a hot napkin, and garnish with parsley.
A Victorian way with cold roast veal: bind it, chill it hard, crumb it twice, and fry. The whole dish stands or falls on the chilling.
- Chill it properlyThe mixture must be genuinely cold and firm before shaping — several hours in the fridge, or overnight. A warm or soft mix will burst in the fat and the croquettes will unravel.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is the kneaded butter-and-flour paste later known as beurre manie: 1 oz (30 g) soft butter worked with flour. The recipe does not say how much flour; roughly equal weights is the usual modern proportion. It is the main thickener here.
- The binding is deliberately dryOne tablespoon each of cream and stock sounds meagre, but this is a stiff forcemeat, not a creamed filling. Add more liquid and it will not hold its shape. If it looks too dry to cohere, add stock a teaspoon at a time.
- Fifteen minutes of stirringThe meat is already cooked; the time over a gentle heat is to cook out the flour and drive off moisture. Keep the heat low and keep stirring — scorched flour will taste of it.
- "The shape of small balls of corks"Either round balls or short cylinders about the size of a wine cork, roughly 1½ in long. Uniform size matters more than the shape, so they fry evenly.
- Double crumbingThe two coatings, with an hour's rest in between, are what seal the croquette. Do not skip the second pass, and press the crumbs on firmly.
- Frying temperature'boiling fat' is generally taken to mean somewhere around 350-375F (175-190C). Below that the crumb soaks up grease; above it, the outside browns before the centre is hot. The recipe simply says to fry until brightly browned all over; the filling only needs reheating.
- Ham, tongue, or baconFour ounces to the pound of veal is there for salt and savour. If using bacon, cook it first and account for its salt before seasoning the mixture.
- Yield and servingA pound of veal plus the ham makes about 12 to 16 croquettes, enough for four as a first course. The "hot napkin" is a folded linen cloth on the platter to absorb frying fat — a rack or paper does the job.
Croquettes take their name from the French croquer, to crunch, and the form belongs to the same tradition of made dishes as rissoles and cromesquis — ways of turning yesterday's joint into something that could be sent to table as an entree. Cassell's places this among a long run of veal recipes; veal was a common genteel roast of the period and left the kind of pale, mild, close-grained cold meat that minces well and takes seasoning without arguing. Nutmeg and white pepper are a conventional English seasoning for veal, and the ham or tongue supplies the salt and depth that veal itself lacks. Deep-frying in a wire basket appears to have been common in well-equipped Victorian kitchens, and recipes of this date often assume one rather than describing how to improvise.