Fish Cutlets

This is a leftover-fish croquette shaped like a small chop, and the whole thing stands or falls on how stiff the binding sauce gets before it hits the fat.

• "Drawn butter" is a sauce, not clarified butterIn American books of this period drawn butter means a simple white sauce of butter, flour or starch and hot water or fish stock, seasoned. Here it is thickened with cornstarch instead of flour and cooked until very stiff — closer to a panada than a pouring sauce. The recipe asks only for "a little"; how much depends on how wet the fish is.
• How thick is "quite thick"Thick enough that a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clean track that holds. If the mixture spreads at all on the platter it will burst in the fryer. Fish is wet, so err toward stiffer than seems reasonable.
• Cold boiled fishAny firm white fish poached the day before and thoroughly drained. Cod and haddock are still the obvious choices; pollock, hake or halibut all behave. Squeeze or blot out moisture before mincing, and pick carefully for bones and skin.
• The chilling is not optionalSpread thin on a platter and left until stiff, then shaped — this is what lets you mold cutlets at all. After breading, the second chill sets the coating; the original's "on the ice" means genuinely cold, not cool. Give each stage as long as it needs.
• The breading orderCrumbs first, then egg, then crumbs again; the word "again" suggests both crumb coats are cracker crumbs. A dry first coat gives the soft mixture something for the egg to grip. Beat the egg with a spoonful of water. Cracker crumbs brown darker and crisper than bread crumbs.
• "Deep, boiling fat which has been heated slowly"Fat does not boil; the phrase is period shorthand for frying temperature, roughly 375F. Heating slowly matters because rushed fat scorches at the bottom of the kettle before the body of it is hot. Fry in small batches, two to three minutes, until deep gold — everything inside is already cooked.
• Seasoning"Season to taste" in books of this kind might mean salt, pepper, a little lemon juice or a grating of nutmeg, sometimes chopped parsley or a dash of cayenne. Season the sauce and the fish assertively; frying flattens it.
• Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; a pound of cooked fish will make a plate of small cutlets. Serve with tartare, egg sauce or a plain drawn butter, and a wedge of lemon.