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Cheese Croquettes
3 tablespoons fat 3 tablespoons flour 2/3 cup milk 2 egg-yolks 1 cup cubes fresh mild cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese Paprika Salt Egg and crums Make a thick white sauce with the fat, flour and milk. Add the yolks of eggs. Into this sauce stir the grated cheese, and, as soon as it melts, add the cheese cubes. Season with paprika and salt. Pour into a well-greased shallow pan to cool. When perfectly firm cut in any shape desired circles, squares or strips dip in fine crums, egg and again in crums. Fry in deep fat and drain on brown paper.
A panade-style croquette: a stiff cheese béchamel chilled until sliceable, then breaded and fried. Success hinges almost entirely on how cold and firm the base is before it meets the fat.
- Chill it hard"Perfectly firm" means several hours in the refrigerator, not merely cool to the touch. Spread the mixture no more than 3/4 inch deep and give it at least 3 to 4 hours, or overnight; a soft center will burst the coating in the fat.
- Frying temperatureDeep fat for croquettes wants 375F. Cooler and the crust absorbs oil before it sets; hotter and the outside colors long before the cheese inside softens. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds.
- "Crums"The old spelling of crumbs. Fine dry crumbs are meant here, not fresh soft ones, and the sequence crumb-egg-crumb is deliberate: the first dry layer gives the beaten egg something to grip so the coating does not slide off the greasy base.
- Egg washThe list gives "Egg and crums" with no quantity. One egg beaten with a tablespoon of water or milk is enough for this batch.
- Fresh mild cheeseProbably a young, soft-textured cheese that melts without stringing badly; a mild American, a young Cheddar or Monterey Jack all work. The Parmesan or Gruyère is there for flavor and body; keep both, as the cubes give pockets of melted cheese in the finished croquette.
- DrainingBrown paper was the standard drain of the period. Paper towels over a rack do the same job, and the rack keeps the underside from steaming soft.
- Yield and servingAbout 12 to 16 small croquettes, enough for four as a light entrée. They are at their best within minutes of frying, while the interior is still molten; serve with a tomato sauce or a green salad.
The technique is French in origin — a thick white sauce bound with egg yolks, chilled, cut and fried — and it entered English-language cookery in the nineteenth century as a way of turning small quantities of meat, fish or cheese into a course that looked deliberate rather than thrifty. A cheese version was especially useful in a period when meatless meals were common on Fridays and in Lent, and when a household with odd ends of cheese and a little milk could produce something crisp and hot without buying anything. The New Delineator Recipes came out of the Butterick publishing house, whose Delineator magazine addressed exactly the reader who needed a respectable dish assembled from what was already in the icebox.