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Hominy Croquettes
Wash half pint of hominy in cold water; drain, and cook in a double boiler for three hours. Add to the milk 1 teaspoonful salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and a few drops of onion juice. Boil hominy, then stir in the well-beaten yolks of 2 eggs; pour into dish to cool; form into croquettes, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in hot fat. Drain, and serve piled up on napkin. Tomatoes, cheese, cream, or other sauces or gravies may be served with the croquettes.
A thrifty way to turn leftover cooked cereal into a fried supper dish. The success of it rests entirely on getting the mush stiff enough to hold a shape.
- What hominy meant hereDried hulled corn, sold today as whole hominy or as coarse hominy grits. The three-hour double-boiler cooking points to the coarse dried grain rather than the quick grits on most supermarket shelves; instant grits are a poor substitute, as they are unlikely to set firm enough to cut.
- Half pintOne cup, measured dry. Coarse hominy swells a great deal in cooking, so a cup of raw grain yields roughly a quart of cooked mush.
- SaltspoonfulUsually reckoned at a quarter of a teaspoon in period measurement tables, though some sources make it smaller. A saltspoon was the smallest spoon in a Victorian service, and is commonly met in books of this period as a small measure for pepper and spice.
- The cooking liquidThe recipe's stray reference to 'the milk' implies the hominy is set to cook in milk, or milk and water; no quantity is given, but about four parts liquid to one of grain is a workable starting point. Cook it in the top of a double boiler until it is thick enough to mound on a spoon and pull away from the sides.
- The hinge: chill it hardThe mush must be poured into a shallow dish and refrigerated until completely cold and stiff, at least two hours and preferably overnight. Croquettes shaped from warm or merely cool mush will slump in the fat and burst the crumb coating.
- Onion juiceGrate a peeled onion on a fine rasp and use the liquid that collects, or press grated onion in a sieve. A few drops is all that is wanted; it seasons without leaving pieces that would tear the croquette.
- FryingDeep fat at 375F, in batches, until the crust is an even brown -- two to three minutes. The interior is already cooked, so the frying is only to set the coating. Let the crumbed croquettes rest in the refrigerator half an hour before frying so the coating adheres.
- Serving on a napkinA folded linen napkin on the platter was a common nineteenth-century way of presenting fried food and absorbing surface fat. A rack over a warm baking sheet does the job better and keeps the crust crisp.