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Fritadelles of Turkey
Detach the meat from the turkey left over from yesterday and cut in small pieces. Cut into small pieces also twelve canned mushrooms and one ounce cooked lean ham. Mix in a saucepan one and a half tablespoons melted butter with two tablespoons flour, heat half a minute, stirring meanwhile, then pour in three gills broth, continually mix until it comes to a boil, then add the turkey, ham and mushrooms. Season with half teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne and saltspoon grated nutmeg; pour in two tablespoons sherry. Mix well, then slowly cook fifteen minutes. Add two egg yolks, sharply mix while heating one minute and cook five minutes. Transfer to a dish, lightly butter the surface of the force and let get thoroughly cold. Divide it in twelve even parts, roll out on a lightly floured table, giving them a nice round cake form, dip in beaten eggs, then lightly roll in bread crumbs, drop in boiling fat and fry eight minutes. Lift up, dredge a little salt over, dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin, and serve with a tartare sauce separately.
A leftover-turkey croquette bound with a thick veloute. The whole thing stands or falls on the binding paste being cold and stiff before it is shaped.
- Chill it hardThe binding paste must be refrigerated until firm — several hours, or overnight — or the cakes slump and burst in the fat. Spread it no more than an inch deep in the dish so it cools through evenly.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so three gills is 1½ cups of broth. A saltspoon is a scant ¼ teaspoon; a full ¼ teaspoon of cayenne is assertive but not unreasonable for twelve croquettes.
- "The force"Short for forcemeat — the bound turkey mixture itself. Buttering the surface stops a skin forming as it cools; a sheet of plastic pressed directly on it does the same job.
- Frying timeEight minutes is far too long for a cooked filling in crumbs. At 350–375F they need 3–4 minutes, until deep gold. Anything longer and the interior boils, the crust cracks and the sauce leaks out.
- Fat temperature"Boiling fat" means hot fat, not fat at a boil. Use a thermometer and fry in two batches so the temperature does not crash.
- The egg yolksAdd them off the heat, stir hard, then return to low heat for the minute specified, and keep the further five minutes' cooking gentle. Held at a simmer they will scramble and the paste turns grainy.
- Canned mushroomsTwelve canned button mushrooms is a small drained tin, give or take. Fresh mushrooms work if sauteed dry first — raw ones release water and loosen the binding.
- YieldTwelve croquettes, serving four to six as a lunch or supper dish. The folded napkin is a period service convention; a rack and paper absorb the fat better.
Fritadelle is one of a family of names — frittella, fritadela, frikadelle — whose relations to one another are uncertain, and though a cromesqui was in practice distinguished from a croquette by its batter or caul wrapping, the boundary between the three was never firmly drawn. What holds this one together is the thick veloute enriched with yolks, the paste that Escoffier-era kitchens commonly used as a croquette base. The opening line is the giveaway about its place in the book: "the turkey left over from yesterday." International cookbooks of the early twentieth century sold themselves on continental technique, and it is tempting to read a good deal of that technique as a dignified system for using up the roast; the sherry, nutmeg and tartare sauce are what raise cold poultry to something that can be sent to table on a napkin.