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Ham Croquettes
Chop very small one-fourth of a pound of ham, mix with it an equal quantity of boiled and mashed potatoes, two chopped hard-boiled eggs and one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, seasoning all to taste; then stir in the yolk of an egg. Flour the hands and shape the mixture into small balls; put some fat in a fryingpan, and when it is hot place the croquettes in the pan and fry them an equal brown all over; place them on a hot dish, garnish with parsley, and serve. For a light luncheon or a late supper dish these croquettes are well suited, or they may be served for breakfast.
A straightforward hash-and-bind croquette from Oscar Tschirky's Waldorf kitchen, sized for a small household. The only real difficulty is that the mixture is soft and the original gives it no crumb coating, so it wants care in the pan.
- The hinge: chill before shapingWarm mashed potato bound with raw yolk will slump the moment it hits fat. Mix, then refrigerate the mixture at least an hour so the balls hold their shape while browning.
- Quantities and yieldA quarter pound of ham with a quarter pound of mashed potato makes roughly 8 to 10 small croquettes — one or two portions as written. Scale up by simple multiples for a table.
- Ham to useAny cooked ham works, but a firm, dry-cured or baked ham chopped by hand gives better texture than deli slices, which go pasty. Chop rather than grind.
- SaltCured ham brings its own salt, and the potato absorbs it. Season at the end, after tasting the finished mixture.
- "Flour the hands"This is the whole coating: a dusting from floured palms. If you want a crisper shell, rolling the balls in flour, then beaten egg, then fine dry crumbs is a common period alternative and holds up better in the pan.
- The fat and the pan"Some fat in a fryingpan" means shallow frying, not deep. The original gives no depth or heat; about half an inch of a neutral oil or lard, hot but not smoking, turning to brown all sides, will do it in a few minutes, since the ham, potato and hard-boiled eggs are already cooked.
- DrainingSet them on paper before the hot dish; croquettes plated straight from the pan can taste greasy.
Croquettes were one of the great economies of the professional kitchen: cooked meat, a starch binder, an egg yolk, and yesterday's roast becomes today's luncheon. The word comes from the French croquer, to crunch, and by the 1890s the form had been thoroughly absorbed into American hotel and household cooking, appearing in chicken, veal, salmon, rice and sweetbread versions. Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel of the Waldorf and later the Waldorf-Astoria, published his Cook Book in 1896; it leans toward exactly this kind of small, useful dish rather than the banquet cookery the hotel was famous for. The closing note that the croquettes suit a light luncheon, a late supper or breakfast reflects a period when a hot meat dish at the first meal of the day was unremarkable, and when the late supper after the theatre was a fixture of New York life the Waldorf served directly.