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Cheese Cutlets
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese 3 egg-yolks 1 tablespoon cream Mace Salt Cayenne 1 tablespoon thick white sauce To the well-beaten egg-yolks, add cream and grated Parmesan cheese, and season with mace, cayenne and salt. Beat until very light and add the thick white sauce. Pour into a shallow greased pan and steam over hot water until firm. When cold, cut in shapes with a fancy cutter, dredge with grated cheese and fry in deep fat to a delicate brown. Serve at once on fried bread.
A small, rich cheese custard that is steamed, chilled, cut into shapes and deep-fried — closer to a croquette than to anything cut from a chop. The quantities are tiny, so treat it as a first course or a garnish rather than a main dish.
- Chill it hardThe hinge is temperature. The steamed custard must be thoroughly cold — several hours in the refrigerator, ideally overnight — or it will slump on the cutter and burst in the fat. "When cold" in a period kitchen meant a cold larder; use the refrigerator.
- 1 ounce ParmesanBy weight, about a third of a cup finely grated, a scant half cup if grated coarse. Use real Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano; the pre-grated shaker product is drier and saltier and will not behave the same.
- Thick white sauceA heavy béchamel, roughly 1 tablespoon butter to 1 tablespoon flour cooked together and let down with only 3-4 tablespoons milk, then cooked until it comes away from the pan in a mass. You need a tablespoon of that stiff paste, not pourable sauce.
- Mace and cayenneNo quantity is given for the seasonings. A scant pinch of each is right for this volume — mace is assertive and cayenne at more than a few grains will dominate three egg yolks.
- SteamingSet the greased pan on a rack in a covered pot over barely simmering water. Spread the mixture no more than half an inch deep; it will be firm in 12-18 minutes and the yolks reach a safe temperature in the process. Water at a hard boil makes it weep and pit.
- CoatingGrated cheese alone is a fragile crust. For frying that holds, brush the cut shapes with beaten egg before dredging, or dip in egg and then fine dry crumbs mixed with the cheese.
- Deep fat375F. The pieces are already cooked, so the only job is colour: 60-90 seconds. Cooler fat soaks them, hotter fat browns the cheese to bitterness.
- Yield and servingThree yolks should give something like four to six small cutlets — perhaps two servings as an entrée, more as a savoury. They must go to the table straight from the fat, on the fried bread the recipe calls for, or they soften.