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Cheese Balls (Mix together thoroughly one)
Mix together thoroughly one cupful and a half of grated cheese, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt and a few grains of cayenne; then add the whites of three eggs beaten stiff. Shape in small balls, roll in cracker crumbs sifted crushed to a fine meal, fry in deep fat and drain on brown paper. Serve with a simple vegetable salad.
A simple fried cheese fritter that depends on two things: a dry, sharp cheese and egg whites that stay stiff. Everything else is technique at the fryer.
- The hinge: fold, don't stirThe whites are the only structure here. Beat them to stiff peaks and fold the cheese in with a spatula in a few strokes; if you mix until smooth the balls will slump and burst in the fat.
- What cheese to use"Grated cheese" in a book of this period most likely meant a firm aged Cheddar or a dry American factory cheese, though the recipe does not say. Use a well-aged Cheddar, Gruyere or Parmesan, grated fine on a rasp. Pre-shredded cheese carries anti-caking starch and fries greasy; young or high-moisture cheese will simply leak.
- Cracker crumbsSoda crackers or plain saltines crushed and sifted, roughly what we would call fine cracker meal. Unseasoned panko ground finer is the closest supermarket substitute; standard dried breadcrumbs work but brown faster.
- Deep fat temperatureThe original gives no reading; recipes of this kind normally judged the fat by eye or by a bread-cube test. Aim for 365-375F. Below that the balls soak fat before they set; above it the crumbs darken before the inside melts.
- Size and batchingKeep them to about a walnut, roughly a tablespoon of mixture, and fry four or five at a time so the oil does not drop below temperature. They need about a minute and a half to two minutes, until deep gold, and should be turned once.
- DrainingBrown paper means grocers' bag paper, valued because it was clean, cheap and absorbent. A wire rack set over a sheet pan drains better; paper towels are fine if you move the balls off promptly so the crust does not steam.
- Yield and timingA cup and a half of cheese with three whites makes something in the region of 20 to 24 small balls, enough for four as a first course or a lunch dish. They collapse and toughen as they cool, so fry them just before serving.
- Cayenne"A few grains" means a scant pinch, less than an eighth of a teaspoonful. With a sharp cheese it reads as warmth rather than heat, and it is doing real work against the richness.
Fried cheese balls belong to the large family of "cheese dishes" that American cookbooks of the turn of the century grouped together as savouries and luncheon dishes: cheese straws, ramekins, fondues, Welsh rarebit, cheese souffles. Such dishes echo an English habit of service in which a small hot cheese preparation closed the meal or stood in for meat at a light supper, though here the recipe itself directs that the balls be served with a vegetable salad. The technique is that of the croquette, popular in American kitchens of the period, with beaten egg white doing the binding rather than a flour panada.