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Sweet Potato Croquettes
To two cups of hot riced sweet potatoes add three tablespoons of butter, one-half teaspoon of salt, few grains of pepper and one beaten egg. Shape, roll in flour, egg and crumbs, fry in deep fat and drain.
If the potatoes are very dry it will be necessary to add a small amount of milk to moisten.
A short, well-balanced formula that needs only a few clarifications about handling and frying.
- Work while hot, shape while coldWork while hot, shape when cooled -- Mash the butter, salt, pepper and egg into the potatoes while they are still hot so the butter melts through. The recipe moves straight from mixing to shaping, but letting the mixture cool (chilling it is easier still) makes it firmer and less likely to slump or split in the fat.
- Riced means passed through a ricerA potato ricer or food mill gives the dry, fluffy texture the recipe assumes. A food processor turns sweet potato gluey and the croquettes will be dense.
- The three-stage coating"Flour, egg and crumbs" is a full breading: dust in flour, dip in a second beaten egg thinned with a spoonful of water or milk, then press into fine dry crumbs. The recipe's one beaten egg goes into the potato, so allow another egg for the coating.
- Deep fat temperatureThe recipe gives no number, as was usual for the period. About 375F works: lower and the crumbs soak fat, higher and the outside colors before the center heats. Two to three minutes gives a deep brown crust.
- Fry in small batchesFour or five croquettes at a time keeps the fat from dropping below temperature. Drain on a rack rather than paper so the underside stays crisp.
- Moistening with milkAdd milk a teaspoon at a time and stop as soon as the mixture holds together when squeezed. Too much and the croquettes will not keep their shape in the fat.
- YieldTwo cups of potato makes roughly ten croquettes, enough for four as a side dish.
Croquettes were a staple of American cookery in the decades around 1900, and general cookbooks of the period often carry a run of them — chicken, rice, hominy, salmon, sweet potato — because they turned leftovers or a cheap starch into something that could be sent to the table looking composed. The name comes from the French croquer, to crunch. The flour-egg-crumb breading and deep fat were standard technique in the French-influenced cooking taught at cooking schools such as the Boston Cooking School, which helped popularize the form. Sweet potatoes suited the treatment: they were abundant and inexpensive, especially in the South, and their sweetness pairs readily with roast pork, ham or turkey.