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Potato Croquettes
1 quart mashed potatoes (cooked) Butter size of an egg 1 teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper 1 egg 1 cup milk or cream.
Mould into small balls. Fry in lard.
A terse formula that assumes you already know how croquettes behave. The critical omission is that the mixture as written is far too wet to hold a ball, so treat the liquid as a maximum rather than a measure.
- The hinge: liquid by feelA quart of mashed potato will not mould into balls with a full cup of milk or cream added. Add the liquid a spoonful at a time and stop as soon as the mash is smooth and stiff enough to hold a shape; you may use only a few tablespoons. Cold, dry, floury mash (russets, riced rather than beaten) holds best.
- Butter size of an eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons.
- A quart of mashed potatoesMeasured cooked and mashed, roughly 2 lb of raw potatoes, giving about 4 cups.
- CoatingThe recipe gives none, which is why the mixture must be stiff. Croquettes of this period were usually rolled in beaten egg and fine dry breadcrumbs before frying; without that shell they will absorb fat and may break apart.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard was the usual choice and gives a clean flavour, though its smoke point is only moderate; any neutral frying fat works. Aim for around 365-375F and fry only a few balls at a time; much cooler and they soak, much hotter and the outside colours before the centre is hot.
- Chill before fryingNot stated in the recipe, but a period of chilling firms the moulded balls and reduces the chance of their bursting in the fat.
- YieldAbout 20 to 24 croquettes, serving six as a side dish.
Croquettes came into English-language cookbooks from French kitchen practice in the nineteenth century, the name from croquer, to crunch, and they were the standard genteel way to serve up leftovers: yesterday's mashed potato, chicken, rice or fish bound with egg, shaped, crumbed and dropped into deep fat. The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to promote its flour, and its recipes were collected from Canadian housewives, which may account for the shorthand style here.