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Potato Croquettes

Fried rolls or rounds of mashed potatoes mixed with bread crumbs, butter, cream, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pass the potatoes through a colander while warm.

  2. Mix the butter with the potatoes, adding cream to help pass them through.

  3. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and one beaten egg; mix thoroughly.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into rolls about 4 inches long and 1.5 inches thick, or form into flat rounds with smooth surfaces.

  2. Beat the second egg on a plate and prepare the grated bread.

  3. Roll each croquette in the egg, then in the bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan and fry the croquettes until light brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper and serve on a napkin.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette, giving a soft, tender interior once cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mash and improving its flavour.
Cream
Adds moisture so the potatoes pass through the colander smoothly and stay tender.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Grated bread
Forms the crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry until light brown. Frying in hot fat browns the crumb coating quickly, so the outside crisps before the soft filling heats through. Oil that is too cool lets the croquettes soak up grease and turn soggy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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