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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato patty coated in breadcrumbs, made with mashed potatoes, cream, egg yolks, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato mixture

  1. Beat the egg yolks.

  2. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well.

  3. Stir in cream, onion juice, salt, nutmeg, parsley, butter, and cayenne until combined.

  4. Cook the mixture in a small saucepan over low heat until it leaves the sides of the pan.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the cooled mixture into small cylinders.

  2. Beat the egg with warm water.

  3. Dip each cylinder in the egg mixture.

  4. Coat each cylinder with bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, ensuring the coating is intact.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette, giving a soft interior that holds its shape once cooled.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and structure as it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the interior soft and tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Egg
Forms the binding coat that makes the bread crumbs adhere before frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned outer layer when fried.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture until it leaves the pan sides. Cooking over low heat drives off excess moisture so the mixture becomes firm enough to shape. Under-cooked mixture stays soft and may split or fall apart during coating and frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cream, nutmeg, egg, parsley, butter, walnut):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cream, nutmeg, egg, parsley, butter, walnut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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