Home › Cookery › Croquette Balls
Croquette Balls
Chop up one quart of any cold meat very fine, to which add one pint stale bread. Mix up one egg, mustard, pepper, salt and butter, and pour over the bread and meat; roll into balls, which must be rolled into the white of an egg, then into bread crumbs, and bake a nice brown. This is a nice side-dish for breakfast or tea.--Mrs. S. G.
A thrifty use for leftover roast, and unusually for its date it is baked rather than deep-fried. The recipe is written in volumes and leaves the binding thin, so a little judgment is required.
- The measurementsA quart of finely chopped cooked meat is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb; a pint of stale bread means torn soft crumb, perhaps 3 to 4 oz, not dried fine crumbs. Weigh rather than trust the volumes, since chopped meat packs very differently depending on how fine it is.
- Amounts of egg, mustard and butterOnly "one egg, mustard, pepper, salt and butter" is given, with no quantities beyond the egg. For that volume of meat expect to need 2 to 3 eggs, 2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter and a teaspoon of prepared mustard before the mixture will hold a ball at all.
- The hinge: moistureCold roast meat and stale bread are both dry, and the single egg cannot bridge them. Work in a few spoonfuls of gravy, stock or cream until the mixture just coheres when squeezed; too dry and the balls crack open in the oven, too wet and they slump.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives no oven temperature, only 'bake a nice brown'. Around 400F for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, on a greased or parchment-lined sheet, will do it.
- Colour without fryingBaked crumbs brown poorly unless helped. Toss the crumbs with melted butter before coating, or drizzle the finished balls with butter, or they will come out pale and floury.
- White of an eggThe recipe dips in egg white alone, which sets firmer and less richly than whole egg. Whole beaten egg works as well and is easier to get an even coat with.
- Reheating cooked meatThe meat is already cooked, so the baking is only to set the coating and heat through. Get the centre to 165F and stop; longer only dries it.
- YieldEnough for about 20 balls the size of a small egg, serving six to eight as the side dish it is described as.
Croquettes appear in American cookbooks, generally traced to French kitchens, from around the mid-nineteenth century, and were treated as a respectable way to serve yesterday's roast: the name comes from French croquer, to crunch. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named Virginia housekeepers, which is why this one carries only the initials "Mrs. S. G." and the loose, conversational measurements of a recipe passed between friends who already knew roughly how much butter to use. Its assignment to breakfast or tea reflects the period's habit of putting a hot made dish of meat on the table at both meals, and the instruction to bake rather than fry is a small economy of fat and attention in a household cooking on a wood range.