Choice Cookery

then with meal, gently patting them to make the meal adhere; insert anything you please to represent the bone (turkey ribs may be boiled white and kept for this purpose). Cutlets require to be dropped into very hot fat, and taken up within two minutes. Consult directions for frying in former chapter. Sweetbread croquettes are simply made into cork or pear shapes, never large, instead of cutlets. When the white meat of chicken replaces half the sweetbread, they are called Cutlets, or Croquettes, a la Reine. Make no attempt to mould croquettes or cutlets until the mixture is firm enough to cut; then handle very quickly, make into proper forms, finish them either as cutlets or what you wish, and let them remain in a cold place for an hour or two before cooking; this last direction may not be always possible, and to an expert is not necessary, but when time can be given the amateur should always plan to do it. But though in experienced hands it is possible (though not so easy) to make croquettes and fry them as soon as breaded, do not be led to believe that you can dispense with putting the mixture on the ice the first time. I remember a young lady who was very proud of her croquettes telling me she never found it necessary to chill the mixture; she could secure perfect shape without. I asked to see the process, and decided in my own mind that she must go widely from the directions, and have her material as stiff as hash; but I found she solved the difficulty in a different way: she simply worked in quantities of cracker meal, using it like flour. Of course the croquettes were spoiled, although it was true they kept their shape, and I do not think the young lady realized at all that she was changing and impoverishing the preparation altogether. _Braised Sweetbreads._--Take a pair of sweetbreads, lay in salt and water for an hour, then blanch. Press slightly between two dishes; when cold, remove all skin, fat, and gristle; cut up