Chicken Croquettes

Pair of fowls weighing six pounds. Choose those with most breasts. Boil in sufficient water to cover them, with two onions, two carrots, small bunch of thyme and parsley, a few cloves and half a grated nutmeg. After they have become cold and very tender, divest them of skin, fat, gristle and tendons, and chop the meat as fine as possible. A half pound of best butter to each chicken should be put into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of flour, and cook together, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Add a gill or so of the stock in which the chickens are boiled, and a tumbler of rich cream. Boil eight or ten minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the fire and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg. Mix well. Stir in milk rapidly, add the yolks of four eggs. Put all on the fire and stew the mixture for a moment, stirring briskly, after which pour the mass out in a flat dish, and let it remain until perfectly cool. Then make it up into pear shaped rolls with the assistance of a little flour to prevent the mixture from sticking to the fingers. When all are ready, dip each one separately into the yolk of eggs beaten with a little cream, and roll them as fast as dipped into fresh bread crumbs made from day old bread. Let them stand for an hour or so to dry. Now fry them a delicate brown in plenty of clear frying hot lard. Lay them in a colander to drain. Serve on a napkin in a warm dish.

From page 32 of the 1904 edition.

Original pages from the book