Thumbing through the vegetable chapter, looking for a side dish for Christmas, I came upon this recipe for Bean Croquettes:
They are a really great and easy period recipe which will even work for a protein option for my historical vegetarian friends if you substitute oil or vegetable shortening for the prescribed "boiling fat." The "pint" of beans works out almost exactly to a 1 lb. package of dried beans and I used white navy beans. Soaked them over night so that a day before I was planning to make the croquettes, I rinsed them again, covered them thoroughly in water, simmered them until they were mashable, and drained them. You don't have to bother with the colander- just a potato masher will do. Otherwise, the directions are perfect. I used crumbs from bread I had made a day or two before but I imagine commercial bread crumbs or even cracker crumbs would do.
Take care not to make them too big (which I kind of did). This is not going to be visually attractive food one way or another but you don't want it to fall apart on you.
Yes- this is, unfortunately, a modern kitchen. One of my life goals is to build one that I can experiment with all of the innovations of the entire Victorian period in one place but, for now, this was an excellent addition to a meal straight from the 1880s. Will definitely appear again on our table!
Yours & c.
The Victorian Man
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