Marrow Croustades is a traditional British recipe, based on Charles Elmé Francatelli's recipe of 1861, for a classic starter of fried bread rounds with a well cut in the centre that's filled with a parboiled marrow and herb mix. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Marrow Croustades.
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This is a classic recipe for a Victorian version of Marrow Croustades that's derived from the chef, Charles Elmé Francatelli's 1861 volume, The Cook's Guide and Housekeeper's & Butler's Assistant. Below you will find both the recipe in its original form and a modern redaction.
Original Recipe
No. 322.—MARROW CROUSTADES.
Take a square-shaped crummy stale half-quartern loaf ; pare away all the crust ; cut the crumb into slices an inch and a half in thickness, and with a plain round tin cutter an inch and a half in diameter, cut out a dozen circular pieces; these must be cut all round one end by making an incision with the point of a root knife in a ring up to within a quarter of an inch of the edge; these prepared pieces of bread must be fried in hot frying fat, of a light colour, and when done, the incised disk will be easily removed, as also the crumb from the interior. The croustades are to be filled with the marrow as prepared in No. 321.
Modern Redaction
A half-quartern loaf is a 900g (2lb) loaf of bread.
Ingredients:
For the Marrow:
1 large marrow bone, ends cut off and sawed into pieces
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 stale loaf of bread with a hard crust (a 900g loaf)
oil for frying
Method:
Scoop the marrow out of the bones and cut this into pieces about the size of a hazelnut. Bring a pan of lightly-salted water to a boil, add the marrow and parboil for 1 minute. Immediately pour into a fine-meshed sieve then turn into a bowl and season with the parsley, salt and black pepper, shallot and lemon juice. Toss to combine then set aside.
Remove the crust from the loaf then cut into slices 3.7cm thick. Take a pastry cutter that's 4cm in diameter and use this to stamp out 12 rounds from the bread. Now take a sharp knife and cut a ring inside each rounds 6mm from the edge, but do not go all the way through (so that, when this ring is removed you have a circular well in the bread).
Heat oil in a pan to a depth of 5mm in a wok or large pan. When hot add the bread pieces and fry on both sides until golden brown. Once done, remove the ring from the centre to form your well.
