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Veal Croquettes
Scald 1 cupful of milk and rub together 1 tablespoonful of butter and 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of flour until smooth; add to the scalded milk and stir until it thickens. Take from the fire, add 1 pint of cooked veal chopped fine, 2 tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, 2 or 3 drops of onion extract and a coffee spoonful of celery extract, 1 teaspoonful of salt, ¼ of a teaspoonful of pepper. Mix well, stand aside until cold, then turn into cone-shaped croquettes, roll in bread crumbs and fry in smoking hot deep fat.
Chopped Veal, German Style Put through a machine or chop very fine 2 pounds of lean veal; for this the shoulder is inexpensive and well flavored. Season with 1 teaspoonful of salt, ½ of a teaspoonful of pepper, 1/2 of a teaspoonful of onion juice and 1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Form into small chops, inserting a piece of bone or stick of macaroni in the small end; dip each chop into slightly beaten egg, roll in fine bread crumbs and immerse in smoking hot fat for eight to ten minutes according to the thickness of the chop. Serve with tomato sauce.
A standard croquette formula: a very thick white sauce (panada) bound with minced cooked veal, chilled firm, then breaded and deep-fried. The chilling is the whole recipe.
- Chill it hardThe mixture must be cold and stiff before shaping — several hours in the refrigerator, or the croquettes slump and burst in the fat. Spread it in a shallow pan rather than leaving it in a deep bowl so it cools through.
- The sauce is meant to be stiffOne tablespoon butter and two heaping tablespoons flour to a cup of milk is roughly double the flour of a pouring white sauce. Cook it a full two or three minutes after it thickens so the flour loses its raw taste.
- A pint of chopped vealMeasured by volume, not weight: about 10–12 oz of cooked meat, packed, from a leftover roast or braise. Two cups of finely chopped meat to one cup of sauce is a common croquette ratio.
- Onion and celery extractThese bottled flavourings have largely disappeared from grocers. Substitute a teaspoon of onion juice (grate an onion and press) and either a pinch of ground celery seed or a tablespoon of very finely minced celery leaf. A "coffee spoonful" is roughly a quarter to a half teaspoon.
- BreadingThe recipe rolls the cones in crumbs alone; they hold together far better with the usual sequence of crumbs, beaten egg, then crumbs again. (The companion recipe on this page dips in beaten egg and then rolls in crumbs.) Let the coated croquettes rest 20 minutes before frying.
- "Smoking hot deep fat"Aim for 375°F. Actual smoke means the fat is breaking down; heat until a crumb sizzles briskly and browns in under a minute. Fry two or three at a time so the temperature does not drop.
- TimingEverything inside is already cooked, so you are only browning the crust — two to three minutes. The longer eight-to-ten-minute fry given for the raw chopped veal below does not apply here.
- YieldAbout eight croquettes, serving four. Good with tomato sauce or a thin cream gravy.
Croquettes were the answer to the cold joint. A book of low-cost recipes leans on them because they turn a small quantity of leftover roast into a dish that eats like a course of its own: the flour-and-milk panada does the work of stretching, and the deep fat supplies the richness the meat has lost. The shoulder mentioned in the second recipe on this page was among the cheapest cuts on the block. The cone shape was conventional to the point of being a rule in period cookery manuals, now generally a cylinder or a flat cake.