Egg Croquettes
2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 tablespoonfuls flour 3/4 cupful milk 6 hard-cooked eggs 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley ½ cupful chopped cooked tongue or ham Salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste 1 egg
This entry gives quantities only; the method belongs to a class of dishes the book expected its readers to know. Egg croquettes are built on a very stiff white sauce that binds the chopped filling, is chilled solid, then shaped, crumbed and fried.
- The hinge: the panada must be very thickThe hinge: the sauce must be thick -- Two tablespoons each of fat and flour to three-quarters of a cup of milk gives a sauce distinctly thicker than a pouring sauce, though not as stiff as the panadas many croquette recipes call for; the chopped egg and meat do a good deal of the binding. Cook it down well before adding the filling; a loose sauce will not hold a croquette together in hot fat.
- Chilling is not optionalFold the chopped eggs, tongue or ham, parsley and seasoning into the hot paste, spread it in a shallow pan and refrigerate until firm, an hour or two. Shaping the mixture while still warm is a common cause of croquettes that burst.
- The single egg is for coatingThe single egg is almost certainly for coating -- The last "1 egg" is best read as the egg wash rather than part of the filling; beat it with a spoonful of water. Crumbs are not itemised in what survives of the entry here; allow roughly a cup of fine dry crumbs to coat this quantity.
- CriscoHydrogenated vegetable shortening, still sold under the same name though reformulated more than once since 1913. Any solid shortening or butter works in the sauce; for frying, a neutral oil at 375F is the modern equivalent of the deep kettle of Crisco the book intends.
- Cooked tongueBeef tongue was a standard cold-cut in 1913 and is now a butcher-order item. Cooked ham is the practical substitute the recipe already allows; leftover cooked chicken also works, though it is blander.
- NutmegGrate it fresh and keep it light. A few rasps season the whole batch; pre-ground nutmeg at the same volume will dominate the eggs.
- Frying and yieldFry in batches at 375F for two to three minutes, until deep gold, and drain on paper. Expect about twelve croquettes, serving four to six, and let them rest a minute before serving as the centres are very hot.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was written for Procter & Gamble by Marion Harris Neil, then cookery editor of Ladies' Home Journal, to teach American cooks what to do with a fat that had only reached the market in 1911. Hydrogenated cottonseed oil was unfamiliar, and the book's strategy was to attach it to dishes housekeepers already made. Croquettes suited the campaign well, since they use shortening twice over, once in the binding sauce and once in the deep kettle, and since chopped leftovers bound in a thick sauce béchamel and fried were a fixture of late-Victorian and Edwardian middle-class cooking, borrowed from French professional practice and adapted to whatever the larder held from yesterday's tongue or ham.