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Rice Patties
Put one-fourth pound of well-washed rice into a saucepan with sufficient white stock to more than cover it, and boil slowly at the side of the fire until the rice is soft and the liquor all absorbed. A small quantity of milk should be added to the broth to give the rice a white appearance. Add a handful of grated Parmesan cheese to flavor, and when the rice is nearly of a jelly turn it out into a pan, keeping it about two inches in thickness. Cut the preparation into rounds with a tin cutter.
A short, incomplete instruction of the kind that fills the professional sections of Oscar's book — the cook is assumed to know that the rounds are chilled firm and then breaded and fried, or used as a base under a garnish. What is written here takes you only to the cutting stage.
- QuantitiesOne-fourth pound of rice is about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons uncooked, roughly 4 oz by weight. It makes only a small quantity, so use a correspondingly small pan if the two-inch depth is to be reached.
- White stockAn unroasted veal or chicken stock, made from bones blanched rather than browned, so the finished rice stays pale. A light unsalted chicken stock is the closest modern equivalent; the splash of milk called for is there purely for colour.
- "At the side of the fire"On a coal range the side of the fire was the cool zone. Read it as the lowest possible simmer, covered, until the grains are soft and the liquid has gone — 18 to 20 minutes for a medium-grain rice.
- The rice must be starchyThe whole preparation depends on the rice binding itself. Use a short or medium grain (arborio, carnaroli, Valencia) and do not rinse away all the surface starch despite the instruction to wash it well; long-grain or converted rice will not set and the rounds will crumble.
- "Nearly of a jelly"Cook until the mass is thick enough to hold the mark of a spoon and pulls from the sides of the pan. Any looser and it will not slice cleanly.
- ParmesanA handful of grated Parmesan is roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup. Grate it finely and stir it in off the heat so it melts without stringing. The recipe specifies no seasoning, so taste and salt at this point, bearing in mind that white stock was often made unsalted.
- Setting and cuttingSpread two inches thick in an oiled pan, press a sheet of buttered paper or plastic onto the surface, and chill at least two hours until cold and firm. A warm mass cannot be cut into rounds. Dip the cutter in hot water between cuts.
- Finishing, which the recipe omitsRounds of this kind were often breaded — flour, egg, fine crumbs — and fried in clarified butter or deep fat until golden, about 3 minutes, then served as a garnish for game, braised meats or a vegetable ragout. Scraps from between the cuts can be re-pressed and chilled again. None of this is in the text; the recipe ends at the cutter.
Oscar Tschirky's book (1896) served the Waldorf's own brigade as much as the public, and entries like this one read as reminders rather than instructions — a cook was expected to know what to do with a set, cheese-bound rice once it had been cut. The principle is the same one behind Italian fried rice preparations such as supplì, though the recipe itself makes no claim about its origins and the route by which it reached a New York hotel kitchen is not documented here. "Patty" in this period need not mean a ground-meat cake; the word had long covered small pastry and moulded preparations, and the burger sense became dominant in America later. Parmesan is the one flavouring the recipe insists on.