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Prune Croquettes
Stiffen prune pulp (prepared as for soup) with fine cracker or breadcrumbs, adding also, if liked, chopped nuts; roll in egg, then in crumbs, and fry in deep kettle of boiling fat.
A sweet croquette built on stewed prune pulp, deep-fried and served as a dessert. The instructions assume you have already made the prune purée that opens the soup recipe elsewhere in the chapter.
- The purée"Prepared as for soup" means prunes stewed soft in water, pitted, and pressed through a sieve or worked in a food processor into a thick paste. Drain it hard: a wet purée will not hold a shape and will burst in the fat.
- Consistency is the hingeAdd crumbs a spoonful at a time until the mass is stiff enough to hold a fingerprint, then chill it at least an hour before shaping. Croquettes that go into the fat soft or warm split open and the filling spits.
- Fat temperature"Boiling fat" for frying means roughly 375F, not literally boiling. Below about 350F the crumb coat soaks; above 400F it colours before the inside is hot.
- CrumbsNineteenth-century "fine cracker crumbs" were usually made from plain soda or water crackers, which were generally less seasoned than many modern crackers. Unseasoned dry breadcrumbs or panko work as well and brown more evenly.
- BreadingRoll in crumbs, then egg, then crumbs again for a coat that will not leak. A single pass, as written, is fragile on a soft sweet filling. Beat the egg with a spoonful of water so it clings thinly.
- NutsChop them fine. Large pieces work as fault lines through the crust. Walnuts and almonds both suit prunes; toast them first for flavour.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; as a rough guide, about a pound of pitted stewed prunes will make something like eight to ten croquettes the size of a small egg. Serve warm with cream, a custard sauce, or a dusting of sugar; drain on a rack rather than paper so the crust stays crisp.
Croquettes were among the great utility dishes of late Victorian and Edwardian cookery, a way of turning any well-flavoured paste into something that could be dropped in fat and sent to the table looking deliberate. Many were savoury, built on minced chicken, veal, or fish bound with thick white sauce; the sweet fruit croquette is the same technique turned toward dessert, and prunes were then a cheap year-round staple in a way that fresh plums were not. Dried plums travelled and kept, and American cookbooks of the period use them for puddings, soups, pies, and stuffings. The habit of pointing readers back to an earlier preparation, as this recipe does with "prepared as for soup," is common in compilations organised by ingredient, where one basic puree is expected to do service across a whole chapter.