Fricatelli
1 lb. raw fresh pork 1/2 cup stale bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt 1 saltspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon onion juice 2 eggs Chop the pork very fine, add seasonings and bread crumbs; beat the eggs, and mix all thoroughly. Shape in small cakes, pan-broil slowly to thoroughly cook. Serve with baked or fried potatoes and garnish with parsley and lemon.
A plain pork patty of the sort that filled the meat pages of turn-of-the-century American cookbooks. Nothing here is difficult; the only real variables are the grind, the seasoning measures, and the doneness.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is the smallest spoon in a Victorian flatware set, reckoned at about 1/4 teaspoon. So roughly 1/4 teaspoon pepper for a pound of pork.
- Chop the pork very fineHand chopping was still a normal alternative to the household grinder at this date. Ground pork from the butcher does the job; if you grind your own, use shoulder so the mixture stays at roughly 20 to 25 percent fat, or the cakes will be dry.
- Onion juiceMade by halving an onion and pressing or scraping it against a grater or a reamer to release liquid without pulp. Half a teaspoon is a very light touch; finely grated onion is the closest modern stand-in.
- Pan-broilIn this period it means cooking in a heavy, dry, hot pan with no added fat and pouring off the drippings as they collect. The pork's own fat is expected to be sufficient. A cast-iron skillet over medium heat is the intent.
- Slowly, to thoroughly cookThis is the hinge. Ground pork needs 160F throughout; the cakes are thick enough that high heat will brown the outside long before the centre is done. Keep the heat moderate and allow 10 to 12 minutes, turning once.
- Stale bread crumbsDry crumbs from day-old bread, not the fine sandy commercial kind. They absorb the egg and juices; fresh soft crumbs are acceptable but will make a wetter mix.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. A pound of pork with two eggs and crumbs should make roughly eight cakes of about 2 1/2 inches, or four servings with the potatoes.
The name belongs to a wide European family of chopped-meat cakes: French fricadelle, German and Dutch Frikadelle, Danish frikadeller, usually traced back through Italian forms to Latin frigere, to fry. American cookbooks of this period borrowed the word freely and spelled it various ways.