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Cheese Croquettes
3 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup flour 2/3 cup milk Yolks 2 eggs 1 cup mild cheese, cut in very small cubes 1/2 cup grated Gruyère cheese Salt and pepper Few grains cayenne Make a thick white sauce, using butter, flour, and milk, add yolks of eggs without first beating, and stir until well mixed; then add grated cheese. As soon as cheese melts, remove from fire, fold in cheese cubes, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Spread in a shallow pan, and cool. Turn on a board, cut in small squares or strips, dip in crumbs, egg, and crumbs again, fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper. Serve for a cheese course.
A stiff cheese béchamel, chilled, cut and fried — the same method as croquettes de fromage and Italian mozzarella in carrozza's cousins. Two things decide whether it works: how thick the base is and how cold it gets.
- The hinge: chill it hardThe panade must be genuinely cold and firm before cutting, or the squares slump in the fat and burst. Spread it no more than 3/4 inch deep and refrigerate at least three hours, ideally overnight. The book says only "spread in a shallow pan, and cool."
- Egg yolks unbeatenThe recipe specifies adding the yolks "without first beating" and stirring until well mixed; no reason is given. The sauce stays on the fire until the grated cheese melts, so work over low heat and stir briskly to avoid setting the yolks in strands.
- "Mild cheese"Unspecified; any mild firm cheese that softens without weeping oil will do. Cut the cubes small, about 1/4 inch, in keeping with the recipe's "very small cubes."
- GruyèreStill available and still correct. Grate it finely so it melts quickly and evenly into the hot sauce.
- Deep fat temperatureFry at 375°F. The 1896 test was a cube of bread browning in forty seconds, which lands in roughly that range. Below 350°F the crumb absorbs fat and the cheese leaks before the crust sets.
- Crumbs, egg, crumbsThe double coating is not optional here — a single layer will split. Use dry fine crumbs, and let the breaded pieces rest fifteen minutes in the refrigerator so the coating adheres before frying.
- Draining"Brown paper" was grocer's wrapping. A wire rack over a sheet pan keeps the underside crisp better than paper of any kind.
- Yield and serviceNo yield is given; the quantities make one shallow panful. Serve them hot, within minutes of frying, as the recipe's "cheese course."
Croquettes were one of the defining fashions of the American cooking-school era, and Fannie Farmer's 1896 book gives a number of them — chicken, rice, hominy, oyster, sweetbread. The technique is French, from croquer, to crunch, and it reached American kitchens through the professional chefs and the domestic-science curriculum alike. The cheese version is directed to "a cheese course," reflecting the long Anglo-American habit of a savoury dish late in the meal rather than the French cheese board, and it pairs Gruyère with a mild domestic cheese.