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Cheese Croquettes
Two kinds of cheese are necessary for these croquettes-fresh, mild cheese cut in small cubes and also grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese. Make a thick cream sauce composed of three tablespoons each of butter and flour, twothirds of a cup of milk and the yolks of two eggs. Into this sauce stir one-half cup of grated cheese, and, as soon as it melts, stir in one cup of the mild cheese cut in small cubes. Season with paprika and salt. Pour into a shallow pan to cool. When perfectly firm, cut in any shape desired, either circles, squares or strips, dip in crumbs, egg, and then again in crumbs, fry in deep fat and drain on brown paper.
A thick béchamel bound with yolks, loaded with cheese, chilled solid and fried — the same panade method used for chicken and rice croquettes throughout this book. The whole thing hinges on the mixture being cold and genuinely firm before it is cut.
- Chill it properly"When perfectly firm" means chilled right through, not merely cooled, in a shallow pan so the mixture sets in a thin slab. A warm or soft centre will burst the crust in the fat and empty itself into the pot.
- The yolks need temperingCook the butter-flour-milk sauce until very thick, take it off the heat, then whisk a spoonful into the beaten yolks before returning them to the pan. Added straight to a boiling sauce they scramble.
- "Fresh, mild cheese"Probably a young, mild-cured cheese rather than an aged one; the recipe says no more than that. Fresh mozzarella is too wet; a low-moisture mozzarella, young Monterey Jack or mild Cheddar all work as the cubed cheese.
- Fat temperatureThe original gives none. Deep fat at 365–375°F browns the crumbs in about two minutes, which is all the time needed — the interior only has to melt, not cook.
- Double breading is not optionalCrumbs, egg, crumbs is specified deliberately. The first dry coat gives the egg something to grip on a slick, cheesy surface; skipping it leaves bare patches that leak.
- Brown paperThe recipe's brown paper is the period drain. A wire rack set over a sheet pan drains better and keeps the underside crisp.
Croquettes were one of the defining dishes of turn-of-the-century American middle-class cooking: a French technique, cheap to execute, and endlessly adaptable to whatever the larder held. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, aimed its cook book at the same readership — women running households without professional staff who wanted their tables to look like the ones in the magazines. The call for two cheeses is the telling detail: grated Parmesan or Gruyère for savour dissolved through the sauce, and cubes of something mild and meltable to give soft pockets inside the crust. Imported hard cheeses were expensive enough in 1911 that half a cup of grated Parmesan used purely for seasoning was no small thing, while the bulk of the dish stayed cheap. Paprika, called for here in place of the more usual cayenne, was fashionable in American cooking of the period.