No. 879

Crab Croquettes, Parmentier

Croquettes de Crabes a la Parmentier

Line some buttered paupiette molds with a thin lining of duchess potato preparation (No. 2785), finished with parmesan cheese; fill the space with a crab and cooked mushroom salpicon mixed with a reduced thick bechamel (No. 409), the same as for a croquette preparation; let it become hard while in a cool place, and finish filling the molds with more of the potato puree. Dip the molds into hot water in order to unmold the croquettes, then roll these in flour, afterward in beaten eggs, and lastly in white bread-crumbs, then plunge them into very hot frying fat to color; drain, and serve on folded napkins and garnish with fried parsley.

← No. 878 Chicken Croquettes, Hungarian Hot Side Dishes No. 880 Crab, Crawfish, Lobster or Shrimp Croquettes →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has duchesse potato, thick béchamel and cooked crab standing by, so the recipe reads as assembly notes. The hinge is temperature: the filled molds must be thoroughly chilled and firm before unmolding, or the croquettes burst in the fat.

Duchesse potato (No. 2785)Riced dry-baked or boiled potato beaten with egg yolk and butter, seasoned, stiff enough to pipe. Here it is finished with grated Parmesan, which also helps it set.
Paupiette moldsSmall straight-sided cylindrical molds of the timbale type; no size is given here. Buttered dariole molds, or even a nonstick muffin tin, do the same job.
SalpiconSimply a dice — picked crab meat and cooked mushrooms cut small and bound. The binding béchamel (No. 409) should be reduced to the consistency of stiff paste, not pouring sauce; a loose filling will steam its way out.
Chilling"Let it become hard while in a cool place" would have meant the icebox or cold larder; a modern cook uses the refrigerator. No time is given, but the filling must be genuinely firm before the second layer of potato goes on, and the assembled croquettes can be chilled or briefly frozen before breading.
UnmoldingThe brief dip in hot water loosens the butter film. Go quickly — a long dip softens the potato shell you have just worked to firm up.
BreadingFlour, beaten egg, then white crumbs. "White bread-crumbs" most likely means crumbs from the white crumb of the loaf rather than the crust; in any case fine crumbs, not panko.
Frying"Very hot frying fat" is not quantified in the text; in modern terms roughly 370-390F. Lower fat lets the shell absorb grease before it colors; the interior is already cooked, so you are only browning, a matter of a few minutes.
Fried parsleyDry parsley sprigs dropped into the same fat for a few seconds until they stop hissing. Wet parsley spits violently.

A Little History

In classical French kitchen shorthand, à la Parmentier means potato, after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the eighteenth-century French agronomist whose campaigning is generally credited with persuading the French to eat potatoes rather than feed them to animals. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, used the tag consistently for dishes built on or enclosed in potato, and this one is a neat piece of restaurant logic: instead of a soft croquette forcemeat rolled and crumbed, the crab salpicon is sealed inside a duchesse potato case molded in a timbale. The numbered cross-references — to the potato paste, to the béchamel — are how the whole book works: a professional index of components, assembled to order.