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Cutlets of Sweetbreads a la Victoria
2 pairs parboiled sweetbreads 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper Slight grating nutmeg 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley 1 egg 1 cup Thick White Sauce Chop the sweetbreads, of which there should be two cups; if not enough, add chopped mushrooms to make two cups, then season. Add egg, slightly beaten, to sauce, and combine mixtures. Cool, shape, crumb, and fry. Make a cut in small end of each cutlet, and insert in each a piece of cold boiled macaroni one and one-half inches long. Serve with Allemande Sauce.
A croquette mixture shaped and crumbed to imitate a small chop, with a length of macaroni standing in for the bone. The success of the dish rests almost entirely on how cold and how stiff the mixture is before it goes into the fat.
- Chill hard before shapingThe bound mixture must be spread on a plate and refrigerated until genuinely firm, at least two hours and preferably longer. Warm or soft mixture bursts in the fat and the cutlets collapse.
- Sweetbreads and parboilingThese are glands of the calf: the thymus of the throat and the pancreas of the heart or belly. Both are usually a special order from a butcher. Parboiled here means soaked in several changes of cold water, then simmered some 15 to 20 minutes in acidulated water, cooled, membrane peeled off, and pressed under a weight until cold.
- Thick White SauceThe stiff binding sauce used for croquettes, far heavier in flour than a pouring sauce: a paste stiff enough to hold a shape when cold. An ordinary pouring bechamel will not bind the mixture.
- "Crumb"In books of this period the term means to roll in fine dry crumbs, dip in egg beaten with a little water, then roll in crumbs again. Letting the coated cutlets rest in the refrigerator about 20 minutes helps the crust set.
- FryingDeep fat at 375F, two or three cutlets at a time. Everything inside is already cooked, so you are only browning the crust "two to three minutes is enough, and cooler fat will soak the coating.
- The macaroni boneUse a large tubular macaroni, boiled and cooled, and insert it only after frying so it does not scorch. It is decorative, mimicking the bone of a lamb cutlet.
- Allemande SauceA velout" of veal or chicken stock finished with egg yolk, cream and lemon juice. Do not let it boil once the yolk is in or it will curdle; a plain lemony velout" is a reasonable substitute.
- YieldTwo cups of mixture gives about eight small cutlets, enough for four as an entr"e course.