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Spinach Croquettes
Take one pint of spinach (cooked), chop very fine. Put over the fire one large tablespoon of butter and one-half of a small onion cut in quarters. When the onion colors, remove the pieces and put the spinach in, stirring constantly, and adding gradually one scant tablespoon of flour, same of bread crumbs, one-half cup of grated cheese, yolks of two eggs beaten and stirred in quickly, one-fourth cup of milk (more, if too stiff), salt and nutmeg to taste. It must only be stiff enough to mold while warm.
Turn out on a floured board; flour the hands and form into small croquettes.
Then cook them in boiling lard from five to seven minutes. Shake or drain in a sieve. Arrange them in the dish in which they are to be served, sprinkle with grated cheese, moisten with melted butter, and place in oven a minute or two to heat through. -Mrs Peter C. Corwell.
A soft, cheese-bound spinach mixture fried without any egg-and-crumb jacket, which makes the moisture content of the spinach the whole ballgame.
- Squeeze the spinach dryThis is the hinge. A pint of cooked spinach holds a startling amount of water, and wet spinach will slacken the panada and burst the croquettes in the fat. Press it hard in a towel or sieve before chopping, and expect roughly 10 oz of cooked leaf from 2 lb fresh or two 10 oz boxes of frozen.
- A pint, cookedThe parenthesis indicates the measure is taken after cooking, not of raw leaf; the recipe does not say whether it should be packed or drained, though the later warning that the mixture must be stiff enough to mold argues for well-drained spinach. Chop it finer than seems necessary; long strands make the croquettes tear when rolled.
- Boiling lardDeep fat at 350-375F. 'Boiling' in period usage generally meant fat hot enough to be shimmering and audibly active rather than literally boiling; lard's smoke point sits close to the top of that range, so keep it under control. Neutral oil can be substituted, with some loss of flavour.
- Five to seven minutes is longEverything in the mixture is already cooked, so the fry is only for colour and a skin. Small croquettes will be browned in 2-3 minutes; in modern thermostatically controlled fat the longer time will darken and toughen them.
- Chill before shapingThe recipe says to mold while warm, which works only if the mixture is genuinely stiff. If it sags on the board, spread it on a plate and refrigerate 30 minutes; cold paste holds its shape and absorbs less fat.
- Grated cheeseThe recipe specifies only 'grated cheese'. A hard dry grating cheese such as Parmesan or a dry aged cheese suits the method best; a moist cheddar will loosen the mixture, and if you use it, cut the milk back.
- The finishing ovenThe recipe gives no temperature, only 'a minute or two to heat through' -- long enough to melt the sprinkled cheese and butter and no longer, or the fried surface goes soft.
- YieldAbout 12 small croquettes, serving four as a vegetable side.
Croquettes were one of the defining shapes of American cooking between about 1880 and 1920, when French technique reached middle-class kitchens through cooking schools and the household magazines. Almost anything left over could be bound with a thick sauce or egg, rolled, and fried. This version is unusual in skipping the standard egg-and-breadcrumb coating, relying instead on flour, crumbs and cheese worked into the body of the mixture, which puts it closer to an Italian spinach fritter than to the classic French croquette. The nutmeg with spinach and cheese is an old pairing, common in European cookery long before it reached American books. The recipe carries a contributor's name, Mrs Peter C. Corwell, in the manner of collections assembled from readers' own dishes.