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Chicken Croquettes, Roosevelt
Detach the legs and breast of a two-and-a-half-pound tender chicken, remove skin, place legs in a saucepan with a pint white broth, and a half teaspoon salt then let boil for twenty-five minutes. Drain, remove meat from the legs and cut into quarter-inch squares. Cut also two ounces cooked lean ham, one ounce cooked smoked beef tongue, one good-sized truffle and place them in a small tin. Cut six well peeled and cleaned fresh mushroom into quarter-inch pieces, fry in a tablespoon butter for five minutes, lightly tossing meanwhile, and add to the tin. Remove all the sinews from breast of chicken, and with a small knife scrape off the meat and place it in a clean mortar; pound it until smooth, then add, one by one, three egg yolks, thoroughly pounding while adding them; pour in two gills thick cream, a tablespoon mushroom liquor and two tablespoons sherry. Season with a level teaspoon salt, two saltspoons cayenne, one saltspoon grated nutmeg, a half saltspoon mixed grated allspice and sharply mix with a whisk for two minutes, then strain through a Chinese strainer into the tin with other articles, mix all well together, and cover the preparation with a lightly buttered white paper. Place the tin a larger one, then pour in hot water up to half the height of the tin. Set in the oven with the door open for fifteen minutes, remove, let cool off, divide the chicken into twelve equal parts, roll into croquette form, and dip each in melted butter, then roll them in freshly prepared bread crumbs. Heat two tablespoons clarified butter in a frying pan, lay in the croquettes one beside another and fry for six minutes on each side. Lift up, dress on a dish crown like one, overlapping another, adjust a fancy frill at the end of each, decorate the centre with a little parsley greens and serve with a Supreme sauce separately.
This is a mousseline forcemeat bound with egg yolk and cream, studded with diced garnish, set in a water bath and then shaped and fried. The pounded breast is the whole structure, so treat that step as the recipe's hinge.
- The hinge: a properly emulsified farceThe scraped breast, yolks and cream must be worked cold and smooth or the mixture will break and the croquettes will not hold shape. A food processor replaces the mortar; keep the meat and cream refrigerator-cold and add the cream in a steady stream rather than all at once.
- Archaic measuresA gill is half a cup, so two gills of cream is one cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon: two saltspoons of cayenne is half a teaspoon, which is assertive but deliberate.
- "Chinese strainer"A chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer. Pushing the farce through it removes sinew and any unpounded fibre; a fine tamis or drum sieve does the same job.
- Oven with the door openWith a range whose heat could not be dialled down, propping the door was one way to keep a water bath gentle. In a modern oven a low setting, in the region of 300F with the door closed, is a reasonable equivalent; check at fifteen minutes, as the recipe directs. The farce should be just set and firm enough to shape, not browned or weeping.
- White brothAn unbrowned chicken stock, made from raw bones without roasting. Any light, unsalted chicken stock works; avoid dark or heavily reduced commercial stock, which will muddy both the poached leg meat and the sauce.
- Truffle and tongueOne good-sized truffle is a luxury few will match; a tablespoon of chopped preserved truffle, or finely diced brown mushroom cooked dry, keeps the texture without pretending to the aroma. Cooked smoked tongue is available from good delicatessens, and a little smoked ham can stand in.
- FryingTwo tablespoons of clarified butter in a pan is a shallow fry and needs moderate heat only, around 325-350F. Six minutes a side is on the long side for pieces this small; go by colour and check that the centre reaches 165F.
- Yield and serviceTwelve croquettes, four to six as a first course. Supreme sauce is a chicken veloute finished with cream and butter; make it while the farce chills.
The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and it carries the Delmonico habit of attaching famous names to dishes: a croquette, a saddle of lamb or a garnish would be christened after a patron, a public figure or an occasion. Roosevelt was a plausible American name of the moment when this book appeared in 1906, though the naming tells you nothing about what he ate; it is a compliment fixed to a menu. The dish itself is a mousseline forcemeat of pounded white meat, yolk and cream -- the same sort of preparation used for quenelles -- pressed into the service of the croquette, a fashionable way to serve chicken in an American hotel dining room of the period.