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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato roll coated in egg and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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

Make the potato mixture

  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 1½ inches thick, or form into flat rounds with smooth surfaces.

  2. Beat the remaining egg on a plate.

  3. Roll the croquettes in the egg, then in the grated bread until coated.

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 croquettes, giving a soft, starchy interior.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the potato mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture so the warm potatoes pass through easily and stay tender.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form the coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Frying until light brown. The coating browns as it fries; too little heat leaves the crumbs greasy and pale, while too much browns the outside before the potato inside is hot.

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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