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Potato Croquettes-Vanilla
Boil six medium, peeled potatoes in two quarts boiling water with a teaspoon salt for thirty-five minutes, drain on sieve and press through potato masher into a saucepan. Add a saltspoon salt, one and a half ounces powdered sugar, a teaspoon vanilla essence and two egg yolks. Sharply stir with wooden spoon on the fire for three minutes, remove, place preparation in a dish and let slightly cool off. Divide in twelve equal parts, roll out on a lightly sugared board into cork-like pieces, dip in beaten egg and lightly roll in fresh bread crumbs. Arrange in a frying basket, fry in boiling fat for six minutes, lift up, drain well, arrange on dish with folded napkin, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over and serve.
A sweet croquette rather than a savory one — essentially a vanilla-scented potato dough, fried and dusted with sugar. A few of the original's directions need translating.
- The hinge: dry the mashThe three minutes of sharp stirring over the fire is not optional mixing — it drives off moisture and sets the yolks so the pieces hold together in the fat. A wet mash will burst its crust and absorb grease.
- Choose the right potatoStarchy potatoes (russets, or a floury baking variety) give a dry, mealy mash. Waxy new potatoes hold water and turn the mixture gluey.
- Boiling timeThirty-five minutes suits whole medium potatoes; quartered ones are tender in 20-25. Cook until a knife slides through with no resistance, then drain thoroughly and let the steam escape before mashing.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon.
- Powdered sugarIn this period "powdered sugar" generally means finely milled granulated sugar — what we now call caster or superfine — not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar in a modern box. Either works here; superfine dissolves more cleanly into the hot mash. An ounce and a half is roughly 3 tablespoons.
- Fat temperature and time"Boiling fat" is conventionally read as deep fat around 350-375F; the book itself gives no temperature. Cork-sized croquettes are likely to brown in two to three minutes at that heat, and six minutes risks darkening the crumb coating past pleasant. Judge by color, and fry in batches so the fat does not drop below temperature.
- Chilling helpsThe instruction to let the mixture "slightly cool off" is worth extending — half an hour in the refrigerator firms the dough, makes the twelve pieces easier to shape, and reduces the chance of a blowout in the fryer.
- Sugared boardRolling on sugar rather than flour keeps the exterior sweet, but sugar on the surface browns fast. Use a light hand and brush off any excess before the egg wash.
- Yield and servingTwelve croquettes, serving four to six as a dessert or sweet entremets. The folded napkin on the platter is a period presentation that also absorbs draining fat; a rack or paper does the same job.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book, a compendium built by the longtime chef of Delmonico's in New York, and it belongs to the French repertoire he trained in: croquettes de pommes de terre in their sweet form, served as a small hot dessert rather than a side dish. Potato as a dessert base is less strange than it sounds — the starch behaves much like the panade in a choux or a fritter batter, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French kitchens are said to have used sweetened potato purée in puddings, soufflés and fried shapes, though how common the practice was is not clear. The folded napkin on the serving dish is a tell of the era's restaurant service, where fried items came to the table on linen to absorb fat, and the name is simply descriptive: croquer, to crunch.