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Ham Croquettes
One teacup cooked ham chopped fine; two teacups mashed potatoes; yolks of three eggs; one tablespoon butter; cayenne to taste; mix potatoes, butter, yolks of two eggs and cayenne, beat until smooth, then set to cool; chop the ham, mix with the other yolk, set on stove a moment, then turn out to cool. When thoroughly cool, take a tablespoon of the potato mixture, make a hole, then put a large teaspoon of the ham inside, shape into a ball; after dipping in egg, and rolling in crumbs fry in deep fat.
A tidy stuffed croquette: seasoned potato wrapped around a ham centre. The only tricky parts are the vague teacup measure and the fact that the balls must be cold and dry before they meet hot fat.
- TeacupA teacup in American cookbooks of this period is smaller than a modern measuring cup; it is usually reckoned at about 6 fl oz, or 3/4 cup, though usage varied. On that reading you get roughly 3/4 cup of finely chopped ham to 1 1/2 cups of mashed potato — and in any case the original's real instruction is a 1:2 ratio by volume.
- The hinge: chill thoroughlyBoth mixtures must be cold and firm before shaping, and the shaped balls are better for another 20–30 minutes in the refrigerator. A warm, soft croquette splits in the fat and empties itself into the pan.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; for deep fat, 365–375F works. Below that the crumb coat soaks; much above it and the crust colours before the centre has warmed through. Two to three minutes gets you an even brown, since everything inside is already cooked.
- "Set on stove a moment"The ham and single yolk go over low heat only long enough for the yolk to thicken and bind the meat — under a minute, stirring. Let it scramble and the filling turns granular.
- PotatoesUse dry, floury mashed potato with no milk or cream added; a wet mash will not hold a shell. Riced or pressed through a sieve while hot gives the smoothest mixture.
- Egg for dippingThe recipe uses all three yolks in the mixtures, so the egg wash for coating is extra. One whole egg beaten with a teaspoon of water is enough for a full batch, and a second pass through crumbs makes a sturdier crust.
- CayenneCayenne is the only seasoning listed, and no salt is called for; period cured ham would generally have carried enough salt of its own. Taste before adding salt, and expect to need a little with modern mild supermarket ham.
Croquettes were one of the great economies of the late-nineteenth-century kitchen: a cup of leftover ham, a bowl of yesterday's potatoes, a coating of crumbs, and a dish that reads as deliberate rather than as remains. The word comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and the form arrived in English-language cookbooks through the same French-trained professional cooking that gave American households their b techamel and their sauce vocabulary. Butterick published its cook book as an extension of a pattern and magazine business aimed squarely at the household manager, and recipes like this one, which turn a scrap of cured meat into a shaped, fried, company-worthy course, are exactly the sort of thing that readership wanted. The stuffed construction here ema potato shell closed around a ham centre ema slightly showier variant than the usual practice of simply mixing meat into a thick sauce and rolling it.