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Crab Croquettes
Remove the meat from the shells of two medium-sized crabs, and chop it fairly fine. Melt in a saucepan three ounces of butter, and stir into this three ounces of flour. Add gradually one-half pint of milk, stir until it boils, and then allow it to cook for ten minutes; remove the saucepan from the stove, and to the hot milk, flour and butter add the chopped meat of the crabs, one saltspoonful of pepper, one teaspoonful of salt, a small quantity of cayenne (not more than would lie on the end of a small knife blade), mix thoroughly together, turn the whole out on to a plate and let it cool; when it is fairly cold make it into little rolls nearly three inches long, and egg and breadcrumb these by brushing them all over with beaten egg and then rolling in breadcrumbs. Fry them in hot lard or clarified fat for two minutes, or until they are a nice golden brown, allow them to drain on a sheet of paper for an instant and serve on a folded napkin with a little fried parsley for garnish.
A stiff white panada bound with crab, chilled, shaped and fried — the classic croquette method, written for a kitchen brigade that had picked crab on hand. Two things need attention: how much crab the recipe actually assumes, and how cold the mixture must be before you shape it.
- The hinge: chill it hard"Fairly cold" is not enough by modern standards. Spread the mixture no more than an inch deep and refrigerate it at least two hours, or until firm all the way through; a warm centre will burst the crumb coating in the fat.
- How much crabTwo medium crabs yield relatively little picked meat. The recipe does not say which species, and yields vary widely: a medium blue crab may give only an ounce or so, a larger crab considerably more. Against 3 oz each of butter and flour, the panada is likely to dominate; around 8 oz (a generous cup) of picked crab gives a more crab-forward croquette. Buy lump or backfin and pick it over for cartilage.
- MeasuresHalf a pint of milk is one cup (US) — note that if you are working from a British text, an Imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz. Three ounces of butter is 6 tablespoons; three ounces of flour is about two-thirds of a cup by weight, not volume, so weigh it if you can.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is generally reckoned a quarter teaspoon. The full teaspoon of salt is reasonable for this quantity of panada, but taste the mixture while it is still hot — seasoning that tastes right hot will often read under-seasoned once the paste is cold.
- Cook the roux outThe ten minutes of simmering after the milk thickens is doing real work: it drives off the raw flour taste and evaporates enough moisture to give a paste that will hold a shape. Stir it, and keep the heat low so the bottom does not scorch.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard or clarified fat at 350–375F. Two minutes is right at that temperature — the filling is already cooked, so you are only setting the crumb. Fry three or four at a time so the fat does not drop below temperature.
- Fried parsleyDry sprigs thoroughly, then drop them into the hot fat for a few seconds until they stop sputtering and turn brilliant green. Wet parsley will spit violently.
- Yield and servingWith the larger amount of crab, expect ten to twelve three-inch rolls — four servings as a first course. The folded napkin was there to absorb fat; a warm plate with paper beneath does the same job.
The croquette is French technique moved wholesale into the American hotel dining room: a thick sauce béchamel or panade used as a binder for chopped meat, poultry or shellfish, chilled, breaded and fried. It was prized in professional kitchens precisely because it turned small quantities of expensive protein — the meat of two crabs, in this case — into a composed dish that looked generous. Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born maître d'hôtel whose name carried the Waldorf's reputation from the 1890s onward, compiled his 1896 Cook Book from the hotel's working repertoire, and croquettes in a dozen variations run all through it. The service details here are as much of the period as the cooking: the folded napkin, the fried parsley, the instruction to drain "for an instant" all belong to a dining room where the plate went out the moment it left the fat.