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July 14
Menu: Steak, a la Parmesan Corn Pudding; Mashed Potatoes; Lettuce, French Dressing; Cheese Balls; Peach Ice Cream; Coffee Cheese Balls-1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon Crisco, 1/4 teaspoon mustard, 1 cup grated cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a few grains red pepper. Rub Crisco into crumbs and cheese, add seasonings and egg well beaten. Shape in small balls and fry in hot Crisco. Drain and serve hot.
A small fried cheese fritter from the menu calendar at the back of the Crisco book, meant as a savoury or a salad accompaniment. The mixture is stiff and dry by design; the hinge is frying temperature, since cooler fat lets the cheese leak out before the crumb sets.
- Fat temperature"Hot Crisco" here means deep-frying heat, in the region of 365-375F. Below that the balls absorb fat and slump; much above it and the outside colours before the cheese inside has melted.
- Crisco and substitutesCrisco was the first widely sold hydrogenated all-vegetable shortening. Any neutral solid shortening or a high-smoke-point oil works for the frying; the teaspoon rubbed into the crumbs is there for richness and can be butter.
- Mustard and red pepperThe mustard is dry mustard powder, not a prepared condiment. "A few grains red pepper" is cayenne — roughly a pinch, an eighth of a teaspoon at most.
- The cheese"Grated cheese" in a 1913 American book most likely means a firm store cheese of the Cheddar type. Pack the cup fairly loosely; a very oily cheese makes the balls spread in the fat.
- BreadcrumbsDry crumbs, not fresh soft ones, or the mixture will not hold a shape. If it still feels slack after the egg goes in, add crumbs a spoonful at a time.
- Chill before fryingThe recipe does not say so, but half an hour in the refrigerator firms the balls and greatly reduces bursting. Keep them small, walnut size or less, so the centre heats through in the minute or two the crust takes to brown.
- YieldAbout 12 to 18 balls depending on size — enough for four as a savoury course or alongside soup or salad.
- The stray line"July 15 Stuffed Shoulder of Veal, Braised" is the start of the next day's menu in the book's dinner calendar, not part of this recipe.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was written by Marion Harris Neil for Procter & Gamble to persuade cooks to abandon lard and butter for a new hydrogenated cottonseed-oil shortening, and its "Calendar of Dinners" exists to show the product turning up at every meal of the year — here rubbed into crumbs, and again as the frying medium. Fried cheese balls of this kind belonged to the Anglo-American savoury tradition, small hot cheese dishes served at the end of dinner or as a relish with salad, and they appear in period cookbooks under names like cheese fritters, cheese straws and cheese ramekins. The heavy use of dry mustard and cayenne is characteristic: cheese was thought to need pungent seasoning to be digestible, an idea repeated in household manuals throughout the nineteenth century.