Lobster Croquettes

A straightforward panada croquette: the lobster is bound with a very stiff white sauce, chilled solid, breaded and fried. Everything depends on the sauce being thick enough and the mixture cold enough.

• Chill it properly"Cool" means several hours in the refrigerator, ideally overnight, until the mixture is firm enough to cut. Croquettes shaped from warm or barely cool panada burst in the fat.
• Thick White SaucePeriod thick sauces of this kind run around 3 to 4 tablespoons each of butter and flour to 1 cup milk, roughly double the fat and flour of a pouring sauce. Check the book's own sauce entry; a standard medium bechamel will not hold the croquettes together.
• 1 teaspoon lemonLemon juice is meant, not zest or extract. Add it at the end, off the heat, so it does not curdle the sauce.
• MustardDry mustard powder, not prepared mustard. A quarter teaspoon of powder is the intended strength; prepared mustard would add liquid and vinegar.
• Breading orderThe instruction as written — crumbs, egg, crumbs — is deliberate. A light first dusting of crumbs (or flour) gives the egg something to grip on a wet mixture. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water, and rest the breaded croquettes 20 minutes in the refrigerator before frying.
• Deep fatThe recipe gives no temperature; period books tested the fat with a bread cube. As a modern equivalent, about 375F for 1 to 3 minutes, until deep gold. The filling is already cooked, so the aim is only to set the crust; lower fat soaks in, hotter fat colours before the centre warms.
• LobsterTwo cups is the meat of roughly two to three 1 1/4 lb lobsters. Chop rather than shred, and pick out cartilage from the knuckles.
• YieldAbout eight croquettes, serving four as an entree course. Fry in two batches so the fat temperature does not drop.