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Veal Croquettes with Mushrooms
2 cupfuls cold veal, chopped; 1/2 cupful finely chopped boiled ham, with a little of the fat; 1/2 cupful good stock or meat gravy; 1 small onion; 1 scant cupful bread crumbs; 1 egg; 1 teaspoonful salt; a little white pepper; a dash of nutmeg or mace; 1 teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce or 2 drops Tabasco sauce.
Chop the onion fine and simmer it fifteen minutes in the stock or gravy. (Cream sauce will do if no stock or gravy. (Cream sauce will do if no stock is at hand.) Add this to the meat and the seasoning; when thoroughly mixed, add the bread crumbs and the beaten egg. Make out into egg or cylinder shapes, roll in beaten egg, then in crumbs, again in egg and crumbs, and fry in deep, hot fat until a rich brown.
Lift them out in the frying-basket and put on brown paper to drain a few minutes. Pile in the centre of a hot platter with a border of button mushrooms and the seasoned and slightly thickened sauce in which the mushrooms were stewed.
A tidy use for leftover roast veal, bound with egg and crumbs and deep-fried. The mixture must be cold and firm before shaping, or the croquettes will burst in the fat.
- Chill before shapingMix the filling, then refrigerate it at least an hour until it holds its shape when pressed. Warm, loose forcemeat is the usual cause of croquettes splitting open in the fryer.
- The double coating is deliberateEgg, crumbs, egg, crumbs again builds a shell that seals the soft interior. Chill the coated croquettes another 20-30 minutes so the crust sets before it meets the fat.
- Frying temperature"Deep, hot fat" is not specified further; fat hot enough to brown crumbs quickly, conventionally around 360-375F, suits croquettes. Too cool and the crumbs absorb grease; too hot and they brown before the centre heats through. A few minutes should give the rich brown colour described.
- Bread crumbsThe original does not distinguish the two uses. By later convention, soft fresh crumbs are used in the mixture, where they absorb the stock, and dry fine crumbs for the outer coating, which brown more evenly.
- Onion in the stockFifteen minutes of simmering is to soften the raw onion and reduce the liquid a little. Do not skip it; raw onion in a croquette stays crunchy and sharp.
- Mushroom quantityThe original gives no amount for the button mushrooms. About 8 oz, stewed in a little butter and stock and the liquid thickened with a small roux, is enough garnish and sauce for this quantity of croquettes.
- YieldTwo and a half cups of meat makes roughly 10-12 croquettes, serving four as a main course with the mushroom sauce.
Croquettes were a mainstay of Victorian and Edwardian thrift cookery: cold roast meat, a binding sauce, a crumb crust, and a dish that read as new rather than as leftovers. Veal's mild flavour takes seasoning readily, which may be why nutmeg or mace, a little ham for salt and depth, and a commercial sauce such as Worcestershire or Tabasco all appear here. The frying-basket and the sheet of brown paper for draining point to a household with a proper deep fat kettle, common enough in well-equipped kitchens of the era, and croquettes, rissoles and fritters do fill many pages of these compilations. Button mushrooms with their stewing liquid thickened into a sauce served as a dress-up garnish, turning a reheated remnant into something fit for a hot platter at the centre of the table.