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Pepper and Salt (Rub two pounds of cold)
Rub two pounds of cold potatoes, or potatoes cooked on purpose, through a sieve on to a plate; put the milk and butter into a stewpan, and when hot, stir in the sifted potatoes. Take the stewpan off the fire and break the yolks of two eggs * If the potatoes are moist leave out the milk. into the potatoes, stir in the chopped parsley, pepper, and salt, and cook it again to bind the mixture. When quite cold, shape this mixture into balls or croquettes, egg and bread-crumb, and fry in boiling fat. Serve with fried parsley.
A standard potato croquette, printed here with its ingredient list stranded in the title line and a footnote wedged mid-sentence. Two pounds of potato gives roughly a dozen croquettes.
- The missing quantitiesThe original never states the milk and butter. For two pounds of sieved potato, about 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 to 4 tablespoons of milk is the working range, and the footnote is explicit that moist potatoes need no milk at all. The mixture should be stiff enough to hold a shape without slumping.
- Keep it dryThis is the hinge. Croquettes that burst in the fat are wet croquettes. Use a floury baking potato, bake or boil it in the skin rather than in water where possible, and let the sieved potato steam dry in the pan over low heat before the egg goes in.
- "Rub through a sieve"A drum sieve or a ricer, not a food processor or a blender, which turns cooked potato to glue by breaking the starch cells. Push it through while warm; cold potato is stubborn.
- "Cook it again to bind"Return the pan to gentle heat and stir for a minute or two, just until the yolks thicken and the mass pulls away from the sides. Any hotter and the eggs scramble in visible flecks.
- Chill properly"When quite cold" means an hour or more in the refrigerator, spread flat on a tray. Shaping warm potato is possible but the croquettes will slacken in the fryer.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when the croquette goes in, around 350 to 375F. Below that they absorb oil; above, the crumb browns before the inside heats. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds.
- Fried parsleyDry, well-picked sprigs dropped into the same fat for a few seconds until the sputtering stops and the leaves are crisp and still green. Wet parsley will spit hard, so shake it out thoroughly first.
Potato croquettes were well established in the professional repertoire by the later nineteenth century, though croquettes of various kinds are considerably older, and they served as a garnish for roast meat and game as well as a dish in their own right. The method - sieved potato bound with egg yolk, shaped, then egged, crumbed and deep fried - is essentially that of Escoffier's pommes croquettes, and versions appear in English cookery manuals of the period under various names. The recipe does open by assuming cold potato, with "or potatoes cooked on purpose" offered as the alternative. The title on this page appears to have swallowed part of the recipe's ingredient list.