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Veal Croquettes
Two pounds lean veal, one-half pound salt pork chopped fine, two-thirds of a cupful of cracker crumbs, two well beaten eggs. Season with white pepper (a little mace if liked). Mold into rolls three inches long and fry in equal quantities of butter and lard.
A simple ground-veal fry with no liquid binder beyond egg, so the details of the mix and the pan temperature carry the whole dish.
- The hinge: keep the pork fine and coldThe half pound of salt pork is the chief source of fat in the mixture; if it is chopped coarse or allowed to warm and smear, it renders out and the rolls turn dry and crumbly. Chop or grind it cold, and mix no more than needed to combine.
- Veal and pork togetherTwo pounds of lean veal ground once at the butcher, or pulsed briefly in a food processor, gives a workable texture. Salt pork is sold in slabs near the bacon; unrinsed it is very salty, which may be why the recipe calls for no additional salt.
- Cracker crumbsPlain soda or common crackers, crushed fine, are the closest match. Two-thirds of a cup is roughly 2 oz; unseasoned dry breadcrumbs work, but panko is too coarse to bind.
- MaceGround mace, the outer covering of nutmeg, is the traditional warm note in veal forcemeats. A quarter teaspoon for this quantity is plenty; more reads as dessert spice.
- Frying fat and heatEqual butter and lard is what the recipe calls for; the lard raises the smoke point of the butter. A quarter inch of fat in a heavy skillet over medium heat browns the rolls in roughly 4 to 5 minutes a side; too hot and the crust darkens before the centre sets.
- DonenessThese are raw ground meat shaped thick, so cook through rather than by colour alone. Ground veal and pork should reach 160F at the centre; finish them in a 350F oven for a few minutes if the crust is browning faster than the interior cooks.
- YieldAbout 16 to 18 rolls three inches long, enough for six to eight people.
- Cold serviceThey slice far more neatly the next day, once the fat has set. Chill fully before cutting for sandwiches.
Croquettes were a fixture of nineteenth-century American cookbooks, part of a broad borrowing of French kitchen vocabulary by English-speaking household writers, and the name comes from the French croquer, to crunch. What is unusual here is that the mixture is raw meat rather than the more common leftover cooked meat bound with thick white sauce, which puts this closer to a forcemeat or a small sausage without a casing. Salt pork was the standard pantry fat and seasoning in households that did not buy butter freely; pairing lean veal with salt pork solved both the flavour and the dryness of the meat at once.