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Rice Croquetts
One teacup rice, one pint milk, one pint water, a little salt; butter a tin, put in the mixture and swell on the stove, where it will not quite simmer. When dry, add two eggs, beaten light. with two tablespoons of sugar and one of butter. Have ready cracker crumbs spread on a board thickly. Make a roll of the rice in the crumbs; drop in hot lard and brown.
A straightforward stovetop rice pudding shaped into rolls and fried. The original assumes a wood range with plenty of gentle top heat, so the cooking method needs the most translation.
- Teacup measureA Victorian teacup in American cookbooks runs about 3/4 cup, not a modern 8-oz mug. With one pint milk and one pint water, that gives a liquid-to-rice ratio of roughly 5:1, which is right for rice cooked soft to the point of stiffness.
- "Butter a tin" and "swell on the stove"This is the saucepan or a buttered tin pail set where the heat is low, not a baked dish. Use a heavy buttered saucepan over the lowest burner, covered, and hold it below a simmer: at a boil the milk scorches on the bottom before the grains swell. Reckon on 40 to 50 minutes and stir occasionally.
- Cool before the eggsThe single instruction that matters. "When dry, add two eggs" only works if the rice has cooled to warm; stirred into hot rice the eggs scramble and the mixture will not hold a clean shape.
- Chill the mixtureThe original does not mention chilling, but the mixture rolls far better cold. Spread the rice on a plate and refrigerate at least two hours, or overnight. Warm rice paste will not roll and will burst in the fat.
- Cracker crumbsPlain unsalted soda crackers or water biscuits crushed fine, not seasoned breadcrumbs. Some cooks roll the croquettes in beaten egg before the crumbs, which gives a firmer shell than the dry crumbs alone.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard is still ideal but any neutral fat works. Heat to 350-365F and fry a few at a time; below that the crumb coat soaks fat, above it browns before the inside is hot. Two to three minutes gives a good colour.
- SugarTwo tablespoons for a full teacup of rice is barely sweet by modern taste. Sweet croquettes of this kind were often sent to table with jam, stewed fruit or a hard sauce, which would supply the rest, though this recipe says nothing about an accompaniment.
- YieldAbout 12 to 14 croquettes the size of a small sausage, serving four to six as a dessert or a supper dish.
Croquettes of every description filled the middle pages of late nineteenth-century American cookbooks because they solved a household problem: what to do with cooked rice, potato, fish or veal left from an earlier meal. The word comes from the French croquer, to crunch. Rice croquettes sit on the line between economy and dessert, sweetened just enough to be served with sauce, and what they ask of a kitchen is telling: this is food for a range with steady low heat and a deep kettle of lard standing ready, the two things a well-ordered Victorian kitchen was built around.