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Cheese Ramekins
1 1/2 lbs. grated cheese. 1 tablespoon flour. Salt and cayenne pepper Whites of 3 eggs.
Mix cheese, grated fine; salt and pepper. Fold in the beaten whites. Shape into balls, one tablespoon for each. Roll in crumbs and fry as croquettes.
A very short recipe that leaves out more than it says: the flour never reappears in the method, and "fry as croquettes" assumes you already know what that means. Read it as fried cheese balls rather than anything baked in a ramekin dish.
- The hinge: keep them cold and cook them fastA ball that is 90 percent cheese will collapse the moment its coating gives way. Shape, crumb, chill until firm, and fry at 375F for a minute or two until just golden — long enough to set the crust, not long enough to melt the middle into the fat.
- The missing flourThe tablespoon of flour is listed but never mentioned again. Toss it with the grated cheese along with the salt and cayenne; it is there to absorb moisture and help the whites bind, and it does nothing if left in the bowl.
- Choose a dry cheeseA firm aged cheese — Cheddar, Parmesan, aged Gouda — grated fine on the smallest holes. Anything young and wet will not hold a shape, and pre-shredded cheese coated in anti-caking starch fries less cleanly than cheese you grate yourself.
- Beaten whitesBeat to soft-to-firm peaks and fold, do not stir. The whites are the only structure here; deflate them and you have a paste that spreads in the pan.
- CayenneNo quantity is given. A quarter teaspoon to a pound and a half of cheese gives a faint warmth.
- Crumbs"Roll in crumbs" means dry fine breadcrumbs. Because there is no egg wash left over, dampen your palms slightly when shaping so the crumbs adhere, and press them on firmly.
- Yield and servingA pound and a half of cheese at a tablespoon a ball gives a large number of small pieces, the count depending on how tightly each is packed -- a savoury course or hot hors d'oeuvre, not a main dish. Drain on paper and serve at once; they are unpleasant cold.
"Ramekin" comes from the French ramequin, which for centuries named a cheese preparation rather than a piece of crockery — toasted or baked cheese, sometimes on bread, sometimes bound with egg. Only later did English speakers transfer the word to the little fireproof dish such things were served in, which is why a recipe headed "Cheese Ramekins" can turn out to be fried balls with no dish involved at all. Mrs. Wilson wrote for a readership schooled in wartime and postwar thrift, and cheese entrees earned their place in a book like this as meat substitutes. The instruction to "fry as croquettes" assumes the croquette — shaped, crumbed, deep-fried — was a technique the cook already had in hand and needed no explaining.