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Apple Croquettes
Core, pare, and slice tart apples sufficient for one pint. Stew these with a dessertspoon each of butter and watercarefully, not to burn-then mash as for apple sauce. Place in double boiler and cook till reduced and the apple seems dry. Have ready one-third cup of cornstarch mixed smooth with a little cold water and stir into the apple with a pinch of salt added. Let cook fifteen minutes, just before removing adding one beaten egg, whipping as it cooks, then place all in a flat, wet mould or deep dish and set aside to cool. When needed drop a teaspoon of the mixture into fine, dry, bread or cracker crumbs, then into an egg beaten, and again into crumbs. Place in the basket of deep frying kettle in boiling fat until brown. Drain and serve with fowl. These croquettes may be spiced or flavoured with lemon.
A stiff apple paste, chilled, breaded and deep-fried as a savoury accompaniment rather than a dessert. The whole thing hinges on driving enough moisture out of the apple before the cornstarch goes in.
- The hinge: cook it dryIf the stewed apple is still loose when you add the cornstarch, the finished paste will not set firm enough to bread, and the croquettes will burst in the fat. Cook the mash in the double boiler until it mounds on the spoon and pulls away from the sides.
- A pint of applesA pint by volume of pared, cored, sliced fruit, not a pint of purée: roughly two to three medium tart apples. Bramley, Granny Smith or any firm cooking apple works.
- DessertspoonBetween a teaspoon and a tablespoon, about 2 teaspoons or 10 ml. So 2 teaspoons butter and 2 teaspoons water to start the apples.
- Cornstarch quantityOne-third cup is a large amount of starch for a pint of apple, and it is deliberate — this is a binding paste, not a sauce. Slake it in 2-3 tablespoons cold water first or it will lump instantly.
- The eggBeat the egg and whisk it in off the direct heat, working quickly; in a double boiler it will thicken rather than scramble. It cooks through again in the frying, so raw egg is not a concern here.
- Chilling"Set aside to cool" means properly cold and firm — spread the paste no more than half an inch deep and refrigerate at least two hours. Warm paste cannot be shaped or crumbed.
- Frying temperature"Boiling fat" for croquettes is 350-375F (175-190C). Below that they absorb grease; above it the crumb browns before the centre heats. Two to three minutes gives colour.
- Yield and servingDropped out by the teaspoon as directed, the paste makes several dozen small croquettes. The recipe says only to serve them with fowl, in place of a spoonful of loose apple sauce.
Croquette cookery ran through American and British household books in the later nineteenth century as a way of turning almost anything — rice, hominy, chicken, salsify, apple — into a neat fried shape with a crisp shell, a technique borrowed from French kitchens where the name comes from croquer, to crunch. This version belongs to the class of sweet-savoury garnishes that accompanied roast fowl: apple with goose and duck is an old pairing, and the croquette form let a cook serve it dry and portioned on a platter instead of as a spoonful of loose sauce. The heavy use of cornstarch as the binder, rather than a flour panada or breadcrumbs, reflects a period when boxed cornstarch had become a cheap and reliable pantry staple in the United States and was promoted for exactly this sort of setting and thickening work.