One pint of boiled and mashed potato, half a cupful of hot milk, three table-spoonfuls of butter, three of sugar, two eggs, a little nutmeg, one teaspoonful of salt. Add the milk, butter, sugar and seasoning to the mashed potato, and then add the eggs well beaten. Stir until very smooth and light. Spread, about half an inch deep, on a buttered dish, and set away to cool. When cold, cut into squares. Dip in beaten egg and in bread crumbs, and fry brown in boiling fat. Serve immediately.
Croquettes.
Care and practice are required for successfully making croquettes. The meat must be chopped fine, all the ingredients be thoroughly mixed, and the whole mixture be as moist as possible without spoiling the shape. Croquettes are formed in pear, round and cylindrical shapes. The last is the best, as the croquettes can be moister in this form than in the two others.
To shape: Take about a table-spoonful of the mixture, and with both hands, shape in the form of a cylinder. Handle as gently and carefully as if a tender bird. Pressure forces the particles apart, and thus breaks the form. Have a board sprinkled lightly with bread or cracker crumbs, and roll the croquettes very gently on this. Remember that the slightest pressure will break them. Let them lie on the board until all are finished, when, if any have become flattened, roll them into shape again. Cover a board thickly with crumbs. Have beaten eggs, slightly salted, in a deep plate. Hold a croquette in the left hand, and with a brush, or the right hand, cover it with the egg; then roll in the crumbs. Continue this until they are all crumbed. Place a few at a time in the frying basket (they should not touch each other), and plunge into boiling fat. Cook till a rich brown. It will take about a minute and a half. Take up, and lay on brown paper in a warm pan.
Royal Croquettes.
Three small, or two large, sweetbreads, one boiled chicken, one large table-spoonful of flour, one pint of cream, half a cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of onion juice, one table-spoonful of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of mace, the juice of half a lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Let the sweetbreads stand in boiling water five minutes. Chop very fine, with the chicken, and add seasoning. Put two table-spoonfuls of the butter in a stew-pan with the flour. When it bubbles, add the cream, gradually; then add the chopped mixture, and stir until thoroughly heated. Take from the fire, add the lemon juice, and set away to cool. Roll into shape with cracker crumbs. Dip in six beaten eggs and then in cracker crumbs. Let them stand until dry, when dip again in egg, and finally in bread crumbs--not too fine. All the crumbs should first be salted and peppered. Fry quickly in boiling fat.
Royal Croquettes, No. 2.
Half a boiled chicken, one large sweetbread, cleaned, and kept in hot water for five minutes; a calf's brains, washed, and boiled five minutes; one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, half a pint of cream, one egg, quarter of a cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of corn-starch. Chop the chicken, brains and sweetbread very fine, and add the egg well beaten. Mix the corn-starch with a little of the cream. Have the remainder of the cream boiling, and stir in the mixed corn-starch; then add the butter and the chopped mixture, and stir over the fire until it bubbles. Set aside to cool. Shape, and roll twice in egg and in cracker crumbs. Put in the frying basket, and plunge into boiling fat. They should brown in less than a minute. [Mrs. Furness, of Philadelphia.]
Oyster Croquettes.
Haifa pint of raw oysters, half a pint of cooked veal, one heaping table-spoonful of butter, three table-spoonfuls of cracker crumbs, the yolks of two eggs, one table-spoonful of onion juice. Chop the oysters and veal very fine. Soak the crackers in oyster liquor, and then mix all the ingredients, and shape. Dip in egg and roll in cracker crumbs, and fry as usual. The butter should be softened before the mixing.