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Westphalia Croquettes

A fried croquette made with ham, mashed potatoes, cream, butter, and pepper, coated in bread and served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Westphalia Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the ham with the mashed potatoes, cream, butter, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Form the mixture into round or oval balls.

  3. Dip each ball in the beaten egg, then roll in the finely grated bread.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the deep lard in a frying basket and fry the croquettes until browned.

  2. Serve on a platter garnished with curled parsley.

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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the soft body of the croquettes, giving a tender interior once fried.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor that stands out against the mild potato.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and easy to shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Beaten egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs adhere and brown evenly.
Finely grated bread
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes until browned. The lard must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly. If the oil is too cool, the croquettes absorb grease and turn soggy before the crust sets.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, cream, butter, pepper, egg, bread, parsley):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cream, butter, pepper, egg, bread, parsley. 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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