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Meat and Potato Croquettes
Cold rice or hominy may be substituted for potato in making these croquettes; and fish may be used in place of meat. Mince a slice of onion fine and put into a stewpan with one tablespoon of butter; when it simmers add one level tablespoon of sifted flour; stir until smooth and frothy and then add one-half cup of milk and salt and pepper; let it boil, stirring all the time. Next add one cup of finely chopped cold meat and the same quantity of cold or hot mashed potato, and spread on a plate to cool. When cool enough, form it into little rolls or balls, dip them in beaten egg, roll in crumbs, and fry in hot lard about two minutes until of a delicate brown. Remove them with a skimmer and drain on brown paper.
A thick white sauce binds chopped leftovers into a croquette paste. The whole thing hinges on that paste being cold and stiff before you shape it.
- Chill the mixture properlySpreading it on a plate to cool means cooling it until firm, not merely warm. An hour in the refrigerator, uncovered so steam escapes, makes croquettes that hold together; a soft paste will burst in the fat.
- The sauce is deliberately stiffOne tablespoon each of butter and flour to half a cup of milk is a very heavy binding sauce, roughly double the thickness of a pouring white sauce. Do not thin it, and cook it a full minute after it boils so the flour loses its raw taste.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard works well and takes high heat; any neutral oil is fine. Bring it to 375F and fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash. Two minutes is accurate at that heat, since everything inside is already cooked.
- Crumbs"Crumbs" here most likely means dried fine breadcrumbs rather than fresh soft ones; the recipe does not specify. For a sturdier shell, dip in crumbs, then egg, then crumbs again.
- Drain on paper towelBrown paper was the period draining surface. Modern printed paper bags are not suitable; use paper towels or a rack over a tray.
- A skimmerA flat perforated skimmer, i.e. a spider or slotted spoon. Lift rather than spear, so the crust stays whole.
- SubstitutionsCold rice or hominy stands in for the potato, though a starchier substitute may bind differently. If using fish, poach or use cooked flaked fish and season more assertively, since one slice of onion plus salt and pepper is thin seasoning for a whole cup of it.
- YieldSomething over a pint of paste, giving eight to ten croquettes, which serves three or four as a main course.
Croquettes were the standard American answer to the cold roast on the pantry shelf, and cookbooks of the 1890s and 1900s are full of them because refrigeration was unreliable and leftovers had to be used quickly and disguised well. The name comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and the method reached English-language kitchens through the same nineteenth-century French professional tradition that gave household cooks the white sauce used here as a binder.